International University in Geneva Master of Arts in Media and Communication

How Switzerland can use Social Media to Promote and Protect its Country Brand

by Beatrice Curtis (under the supervision of Professor Patricia Goldschmid) May, 2011

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Abstract Background: Swiss and quality have always been synonymous. Switzerlands economy depends on it from its banks to its watches to its pictureperfect tourism and top-rated system of governance. But since 2008, Switzerlands reputation as one of the worlds most admired and competitive countries has been jeopardized by sustained attacks in online media on its banking secrecy practices and referenda seen as limiting the rights of foreign residents. In light of these media attacks, this research aims to define how an integrated, best practices use of Swiss social media channels can protect and strengthen Switzerlands country brand image. After reading this thesis, the audience will understand how well Switzerlands communication strategy abroad is currently being supported by its social media compared to best practices and a benchmark country. It will also be able to see a correlation between best practices social media use to promote a country brand and losses or gains in that brands position in the major country ranking indexes. Analysis: Because the Swiss government uses the results of country brand ranking surveys to identify the strengths and weaknesses on which it bases its Communication Strategy Abroad, this research focused on the qualitative elements used to rank countries by Anholts Nation Branding Index (NBI) and IMDs World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), such as perception of a countrys culture and people. An interview with the Director of the WCY helped to verify a correlation between drops in certain elements of Switzerlands image abroad and intense negative online media attention. The head of Presence Switzerland was interviewed to discuss plans for using social media to support the governments Communication Strategy Abroad.

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Government officials were also interviewed on the feasibility of extending the term and/or social media presence of the presidency. Six major Swiss social media channels, which correlate with the NBI Hegaxon and the aims of the communication strategy, were identified: country brand image, information gateway, tourism, governance, investment, and news media. These were evaluated for their integration and depth as well as their ability to engage their target audiences. Swiss social media was then compared to that of Sweden, which was selected as a benchmark for its equivalence to Switzerland in country competitiveness and for following social media best practices. Finally, Swiss head-of state social media was compared to Australia. Results: It was determined that compared to the benchmark countries and to its own strategic aims, Switzerlands social media was not using best practices. Even though the investment and news media channels have social media depth, they are not integrated into the other main strategic channels. In particular, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) Presence Switzerland, which is mandated to fulfill Switzerlands communication strategy, is not using collaborative social media channels, which could help lead positive and neutralize negative perceptions of Switzerlands actions. The Swiss presidency is only using one social media channel in a limited way, compared to a three-channel best-practices use by Australias Prime Minister. Conclusion: The outcome of this research is a list of six recommendations as to how official Swiss social media integration could be improved and social media channels extended to promote Switzerlands country brand and protect it from attacks that weaken elements of its brand and endanger its strong position in ranking indexes.

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Acknowledgements I wouldnt be writing this acknowledgement if the idea to pursue an M.A. hadnt been proposed to me by IUGs chancellor Dr. Claude Martin and seconded by its president, Eric Willumsen, at IUGs 2008 Christmas dinner. To Claude for encouraging me to add an M.A. to my name, and to Eric for funding it, I express my profound thanks. The topic of my thesis I owe to my supervisor, Patricia Goldschmid, who required (and inspired) me to start my own blog in December 2009 for one of my favorite media and communication courses, New Media. The research I have undertaken to validate my blogs posts on Switzerlands image since then has served me well in writing this thesis, as has Patricias support. I would also like to thank the other professors at IUG who trained me in the fundamental marketing, media and communication concepts and theories that informed this research: Surhabi Agarwal, Rosita Ericsson, John Dolivio, Glen ONeil, and John Santantoniou. Not only did they teach me well, but they are also valued collegues. Not to be overlooked are my class project team leaders and partners, who not only accepted a grandmother and IUG professor as their peer, but helped her achieve Phi Beta Delta membership: Anita Donay, Carolina Clavijo Martinez, Khalid Ebrahimi, and Elodie Fichet. Lastly, heartfelt thanks to the family and friends who cheered me on as I ran the Masters Degree marathon and staggered, exhausted but proud, to the finish line. You know who you are, because youre reading this!

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. INTRODUCTION. 7 1.1 Purpose of research... 7 1.2 The Swiss country brand 8 1.2.1 Why it is a top country brand........... 9 1.2.2 Why it needs a social media communication strategy..... 10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW...... 12 2.1 Definitions. 12 2.1.1 Communication 12 2.1.2 Social media. 12 2.1.3 Social media tools 13 2.1.4 Country brand ranking indexes... 14 2.2 Country ranking relevance to social media... 15 2.2.1 Swiss brand losses in ranking indexes.... 15 2.2.2 Effects of technology and globalization on brands. 16 2.2.3 Identification of brand strengths and weaknesses.. 17 2.3 Social media communication best practices 18 2.3.1 Channel alignment to target audiences... 18 2.3.2 Channel integration and depth 20 2.3.3 Channel tactics 20 2.4 Benchmark countries for social media best practices .. 21 2.4.1 Sweden....................... 21 2.4.2 Australia. 21 3. METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Types of research.. 22 3.1.1 Purposes. 22 3.1.2 Approaches. 22 3.2 Scope of research 23 3.2.1 Data collection 23 3.2.2 Data sampling. 24 3.2.3 Limitations.. 24 4. DATA PRESENTATION and ANALYSIS. 26 4.1 Primary research on Swiss brand ranking and communication strategy.. 26 4

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 4.1.1 Swiss brand ranking Head, IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook.. 26 4.1.2 Swiss brand communication strategy Head, Presence Switzerland. 28 4.1.3 Swiss presidency and social media Swiss president, Chief-of-Protocol.. 30 4.2 Evaluation of Swiss social media channels... 32 4.2.1 Brand communication strategy 33 4.2.2 Information gateway... 34 4.2.3 Tourism... 37 4.2.4 Investment and Trade.. 39 4.2.5 Governance . 42 4.2.6 News media. 44 4.3 Evaluation of Swedish social media channels...... 47 4.3.1 Brand communication strategy 49 4.3.2 Channel alignment to target audiences 49 4.3.3 Channel integration and depth 52 4.3.4 Channel tactics 53 4.4 Evaluation of Swiss and Australian country leader social media 54 4.4.1 Swiss president 55 4.4.2 Australian prime minister 57 5. DISCUSSION of RESULTS .. 60 5.1 Swiss versus best practices channel alignment to audiences. 60 5.2 Swiss versus best practices channel integration and depth 65 5.3 Swiss versus best practices channel tactics 67 5.4 Swiss versus best practices country leader social media... 67 CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS. 69 APPENDICES... 74 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 83

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Figures

Figure 1. UDC Party posters supporting minaret and deportation referenda.. Figure 2. Anholt-GfK Roper NBI Top Ten Nations 2009/2010..... Figure 3. Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brand Hexagon. Figure 4. Top 20 Facebook Swissbrands 2011 Figure 5. Total Swiss Exports 2008 Economy Watch.. Figure 6. Stakeholder of a Nation Brand The Branding Institute. Figure 7. Top 20 Country Brands IMD WCY 2011..... Figure 8. Switzerland Overall Performance IMD WCY 2010. Figure 9. Levels of Swiss Strategy for Communication Abroad 2010-201.... Figure 10. Swiss social media channels map... Figure 11. Swiss country brand SWOT analysis.. Figure 12. Swiss Country brand external environment analysis.. Figure 13.Aims of Swiss Strategy for Communication Abroad 2010-2011.... Figure 14. Swedish social media channels map

1 8 8 10 10 19 21 28 28 32 33 34 36 48

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA How Switzerland can use Social Media to Promote and Protect its Country Brand 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose of research The tenet of this thesis is that Switzerland needs a best practices use of social media channels to help support the goals of its communication strategy to promote and protect its country brand abroad. Switzerland has one of the strongest country brands in the world, but its reputation for integrity, reliability, humanity, and governance has been compromised by attacks in both traditional (print and broadcast) and new (digitized online) media ever since the financial crash of 2008. Accusations of banking tax fraud have tarnished its integrity, (France24, 2009), longtime Swiss resident and renowned film director Roman Polanskis arrest in September 2009 its reliability, the 2009 and 2010 referenda (Figure 1) to ban minarets and deport foreign criminals and their families its humanity, and a costly two-year dispute with Libya beginning with the arrest of Gaddafis son and ending with the release of Libyas Swiss hostage, its governance (Muslimmatters, 2009) (France24, 2010).

Figure 1

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA To counter this tarnishing of the Swiss image by negative coverage of its actions and policies, this paper will show how social media best practices can help the Swiss country brand improve the alignment and depth of its six major channels to support its communication strategy and maintain its high position among the worlds top ten country brands (Figure 2). It will also explore the possibilities of establishing a multi-channel social media presence for the Swiss presidency to give Switzerland an online capability to react with speed and high visibility when its policies and actions come under social media attack (Gaines-Ross, 2010).

Figure 2

Figure 3

1.3 The Swiss country brand Country brand or image has been defined as the sum of beliefs and impressions people hold about places (Kotler and Gertner, 2002). Simon Anholt, who created the concept of nation branding in 1996 (Anholt, 2011), identified six key elements of a country brand in his Nation Brand Hexagon ((Figure 3) (Anholt-GfK Roper, 2010): tourism, exports, governance, investment/immigration, culture and heritage, and people. Switzerlands major social media channels are aligned to facets of this hexagon, although there are both overlaps and lapses of image projection,

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA particularly in the areas of culture, heritage and people, as will be seen in the evaluation of these channels in chapter 4. 1.2.1 Why it is a top country brand Quality: Switzerland is like one of its major exports, the watch: small, precise, and indispensible. Like a premium brand, Switzerland is positioned as an aspirational country, a model State, with a feel of exclusivity and privateness(it) is like the Swarovski of countries - select and limited (Markessinis, 2010). Rankings: With just over 7.785 million people living in an area of 41,285 sq kms (PRS, 2010), Switzerland only ranks 94th in population and 132nd in size among countries (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). However, in terms of its competitiveness or quality of life, it is among the top ten countries on the four major ranking indexes : no. 8 on the NBI- Nation Branding Index (Nation Branding, 2011), no. 5 on the CBICountry Brand Index (FutureBrand, 2010), no. 1 on the WEF Global Competitiveness Index (WEF, 2011), and no. 5 on the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (IMD WCY, 2011). The methodology of these indexes will be defined in chapter two. Exports: Cheese, chocolate, and watches are Switzerlands best-known exports, according to Switzerlands image-branding channel (Image Switzerland, 2011). Swiss food exports have risen only 1% in the past ten years (Trading Economics, 2010), to 3.1% of total exports, yet they represent nine of Switzerlands top 20 brands on Facebook (Miller, 2011), while watch exports, at 8%, represent six of the top brands (Figure 4).

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Figure 4

Figure 5

Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical exports are three times higher than foods and watches combined (Figure 5), but they are not associated with Swiss culture. Banking, which is, contributes 70% to the countrys GDP. These high-performing sectors help Switzerland achieve a per capita income (GNI) of $46,990, the 4th highest in the world (World Bank, 2011). Investment: Thanks to its location in the heart of continental Europe and its political stability, legal security, a highly skilled labor force, and tax advantages, Switzerland attracts many major multinationals to move in. Even online giants like Google and eBay have moved their R &D or HQ to Switzerland (Brooks, 2011). Switzerlands stability has also ensured that The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) is the most active centre for multilateral diplomacy in the world. The UN, as well as all major NGOs have their HQs in Switzerland (FDFA, 2011). 1.2.2 Why it needs a social media communication strategy Even Switzerlands strongest sectors face threats: its exports and tourism due to an appreciation of the Swiss franc of between 16-30% over the past two years against the currencies of its major trading partners (Bradley, 2011), and its banks due

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA to continued demands to liberate billions deposited by tax evaders and deposed dictators (Cobley, 2011). Thus its needs a communication strategy abroad that strengthens Switzerlands weaker brand elements, like innovation, immigration, and the attitudes and values of its people (Markessinis, 2010). Presence Switzerland (PRS), which was established in 2000 to promote Switzerland (Slater, 2008), is responsible for selling Switzerlands image abroad . 1 Nicolas Bideau, head of PRS since January 2011, concurs that our job is very similar to what the advertisers in the Madmen series do (Germanier, 2011). The objectives, audiences, and instruments (channels) of promoting the Swiss image are defined in the Communication Strategy Abroad 2010-2011. (Image Switzerland, 2011) According to Kotler and Gertner (2004, p. 51), Strategic image management (SIM) is the ongoing process of researching a places image among its audiences, segmenting and targeting its specific image and its demographic audiences, positioning the places benefits to support an existing image or create a new image, and communicating those benefits to the target audiences using appropriate channels. PRSs current strategy focuses on personal involvement, information exchange, and special events (Smith R. D., 2009, p. 189). Experts call interpersonal communications the most persuasive and engaging of all the communication tactics. But online social media channels can reach and interact with a countrys wider audiences in a controlled way (Smith R. D., 2009, p. 199). PRS currently uses two non-interactive social media channels that describe Swiss life and institutions. (Image Switzerland, 2011). By comparing Switzerlands major social media channels to two countries that follow best practices, this thesis will evaluate how well Swiss social media is being used to strengthen and protect the country brand.

Interview with William Hold, February 14, 2011, Fribourg, Switzerland 11

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 2. Literature Review 2.1 Definitions. 2.1.1 Communication For the purposes of this research, it is important to distinguish between asynchronous (one-way) and sychronous (two-way) communication. As noted by Windhal et al, interactive communication technology in the form of online social media has led from simple information transmission, the purview of traditional print and broadcast media, to shared perceptions of that information, a shift from the source and receiver communication model to a participant model (Windhal, 2009, pp. 12-4). 2.1.2 Social media Social media involves activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 35). Brian Solis further defines social media as any tool or service that uses the Internet to facilitate conversations (Solis, Engage!, 2010). The Social Media Bible identifies 15 categories of tools (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 449), of which four will be applied to country branding in this paper: social networks, blogs, microblogs, and video. This paper will also analyse websites as gateways which encourage and enable their target audiences to participate in more interactive platforms. 2.1.3 Social media tools Web site: A web site is group of web pages connected by hyperlinks made available on the world wide web by businesses, governments, or individuals. Its main purpose is to encourage audiences to stay, explore, and be persuaded by the sites

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA messages, as well as interact with its other social media channels (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 142). Social networks : Online networks build communities of friends or fans around personal, topical, or organizational profiles. While the primary motivation is social, organizations are increasingly using social networks because relationships can lead to business or support advocacy (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 26). Blogs : Blogs are online journals which enable instant self-publication. They can be unique websites or hosted on blogging sites. Many of them, especially those written by web leaders or contributors to watch (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 48) include lengthy online conversations via comments. Government generated blogs first appeared in the USA in 2001 (Safko and Brake, 2009). Microblogs : These are a platform for instant messaging of up to 140 characters that can be sent to a group of followers via cell phones or the microblog website. (PC Mag, 2011). But unlike social networks, microblog followings arent necessarily reciprocal. Microblogging began as small, intimate communities that are centered on topics (Safko & Brake 2009 p. 263), but many major figures, like US President Barack Obama, have millions of followers. 25 other world leaders have followings from 15,000 to as much as 1.5 million (Digitaldaya, 2010). Video : While there are several providers of video content, including the major search engines, the most interactive and social is the user-generated YouTube network (Banking.com staff, 2011), which exceeds 2 billion views per day (Youtube, 2010). YouTube is increasingly being used by countries to promote their products or politicians to run for office, such as the 2008 US presidential debate (CSPAN, 2008).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Social media mobility: Due to wireless local networking (Wi-Fi) and smart phones, which are cell phones with built in applications and Internet access (PC Mag, 2011), social networking has become increasingly accessible and pervasive. People can e-mail, post on Facebook, or tweet on Twitter from anywhere even in mid-air. By the end of 2010, 2000 commercial aircraft offered Wi-Fi, compared to 700 in 2009 (King, 2010). The Pew Research Center found that 59% of adults in the USA accessed the Internet wirelessly in 2010, an 8% increase over 2009 (Smith, 2010). 2.1.4 Country brand ranking indexes There are many country brand rankings, but the four most often used by countries to promote their brands are: 1. GfK-Anholt Nation Branding Index (NBI), published annually since October 2006, is the most extensive qualitative sampling. In a questionnaire completed by 20,000 individuals in 50 countries, the NBI congregates perceptions of 26 countries NBI hexagon characteristics (Anholt-GfK Roper, 2010)(Figure 3). 2. The Country Brand Index (CBI) by FutureBrand focuses on tourism elements of a country brand. The CBI surveys 3,500 business and tourism travelers in 15 countries about perceptions of 25 countries (SCCIJ, 2010). 3. The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report surveys 13,500 business leaders in 139 countries as well as publically available economic indicators in 12 quantitative areas, including institutions, infrastructure, and macroeconomic environment (WEF, 2011). 4. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) ranks and analyzes the ability of nations to create and maintain an environment in which enterprises can compete. In 2010, it surveyed 4,460 executives in 58 countries on factors that contribute to a countrys image abroad (IMD World Competitiveness Center, 2010).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 2.2 Country ranking relevance to social media 2.2.1 Swiss brand losses in ranking indexes Simon Anholts public affairs manager wrote that Switzerlands drop in its rank for 'people' and 'investment and immigration' on the 2010 NBI is almost certainly a consequence of the minarets referendum having a negative impact on Switzerlands people rank in the 2010 survey. 2 That year, the Geneva Human Rights Council condemned Switzerland as being islamophobic (Bradley, 2010). In analysing Switzerlands loss of nearly 2% in NBI scores over the past 2.5 years, Anholt says nations can go out of fashion as public opinion and general moral views and values evolve around them , which can put Switzerland and its enviable pristine image at risk (Anholt, 2010, p. 62). Despite lower scores in people and investment/immigration topics, Switzerland is still no. 8 on the NBI in 2010 due to its no. 1 rank in governance (Anholt, 2010, p. 62). But in March 2011, the University of Zurich and the Social Science Research Center in Berlin (WZB) released the results of their five-year study of the worlds 30 best democracies, which received wide online coverage. As reported in the Wall Street Journal: surprising (among democracies) is the fact that Switzerland (14th) is only mediocre and lags behind 11th-placed Germany (PR Newswire, 2011). In May 2010 the IMD, in whose World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) Switzerland had held 4th place since 2008, warned Switzerland that its image abroad has been tarnished and the risk in the financial sector was magnified (Brooks, 2010). A year later, Switzerland dropped to 5th position on the WCY (Figure 7).

E-mail from Martina Alvarez-Loewenstein, November 16, 2010 15

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 2.2.2 Effects of technology and globalization on brands Mass media technology has changed country brand management from a oneway push process of mass communication to a synchronous selection, reflection, sharing, and experiencing (Molenaar 1996,2002). The WEF and IMD began ranking countries by their more quantitative qualities, like GDP, education, and infrastructure, in 1979 and 1989 respectively (WEF, 2011) (IMD World Competitiveness Center, 2010). But the reach of the Internet has made it possible not only to extend country ranking surveys to a wider and more diverse audience, but to gather, analyse, and distribute both qualitative survey and quantifiable country indicators more rapidly and efficiently (Anholt, Places, 2010). Nation/country/place branding, as it is variously named, has become more relevant as technological advancement and increased international competition affect the way in which places are imagined, perceived and consumed (Grover and Go, 2009, p. 5). Place branding and ranking on the Internet have become a way for countries to attract people who want to experience a place in order to be inspired through being relaxed and absorbed in its culture, or to determine whether they would want to live there, invest there or trade products from there (Grover and Go, 2009, p. 5). Place branding has also gained importance through globalization. Low-cost global communication on the Internet has stimulated growing consumer appetites for multi-national travel, services, and products. In addition, countries compete for limited international investors and skilled and professional immigrants. In short, place branding is mainly provoked by globalization processes where the market place for ideas, culture, and reputation, in addition to products, services and funds, are fusing into a single global community (Anholt, 2005, p. 35).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 2.2.3 Identification of brand strengths and weaknesses Country brand rankings look at both quantitative and qualitative elements of a countrys identity, then compare them to their competitors. A country can identify its strengths and weaknesses rated by, and against, other countries. Thus country branding gives two parameters of the SWOT analysis, from which opportunities and threats can be derived. For example, Switzerlands governance in Anholts NBI and IMDs WCY rankings is no. 1, so it is clearly a Swot strength (Figure 11). Likewise, both rankings highly rate Switzerland for quality of life and stability, another Swot strength. But the attitudes and values of the population have been ranked lower in 2010 on the NBI and WCY indexes, making them weaknesses in the Swiss country brand. Switzerland itself recognizes the importance of country rankings. It refers to Anholts NBI on the Presence Switzerland site, Image Switzerland (PRS, 2010), and to IMDs WCY on its offical business blog, exportblog.ch (Osec Exportblog, 2011). The Swiss government says: Based on these analyses, the FDFA develops its national communication strategy for the attention of the Federal Council (Markessinis, 2010). As Simon Anholt notes, All nations need to compete for a share of the world's attention and wealth, and that development is as much a matter of positioning as anything else. He recommends that countries appoint Cabinet-level branding ministers. ''I've visited a great many countries where they have ministers for things that are far less important than branding'' (Anholt, 2003). Switzerlands new branding minister, Nicolas Bideau, was appointed to head Presence Switzerland in January 2011 (Germanier, 2011).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 2.3 Social media communications best practices No social media strategy will be successful and measureable if its main messages, or content, and their audiences, or stakeholders, are not clearly differentiated and targeted using the right platforms and tactics. In the Communication Strategy Abroad for 2010-11, Presence Switzerland has identified its main messages as: 1) Communicating Switzerlands political system, 2) Promoting an understanding of it political values and approaches to implement them, and 3) Increasing awareness about its competitiveness and innovativeness, especially in transport and environment. Audiences are opinion leaders and media representatives in Great Britain, Germany, France, the USA, and China, plus politicians, scientists, and students in the USA and China. Tactics, referred to instruments, include projects abroad, major events, foreign delegations, promotional publications and multimedia, and two websites. Presence Switzerland also cooperates with tourism and news websites to promote other facets of Switzerlands brand.3 This section will set out the best practices used to evaluate Switzerlands social media to competitively promote and protect its image abroad. This includes comparisons to the social media of Sweden and Australia, which have been found to exemplify best practice use of social media for communication strategy implementation and engagement with political leaders respectively. 2.3.1 Channel alignment to target audiences In a best practices world, the alignment between a countrys communication strategy and the channels it uses to communicate the aims of the strategy will be clear, targeted, and well-integrated. As noted, Switzerland has used the strengths and weaknesses defined by major country brand indexes like the NBI to help define its

Phone interview with Nicolas Bideau, March 23, 2011 18

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA strategic areas and related messages. To help formulate the right messages, Brian Soliss first of five steps for managing a brand online advises: listen and learn by gathering meaningful, actionable intelligence about your audience. Country brand rankings not only globally sample a countrys stakeholders to gather meaningful intelligence, but they also fulfill Solis third step: define the distinct facets of a country brand to which conversations should be aligned. These facets are variously named by the different indexes but basically contain the same elements. For the purposes of this analysis, they are defined as: culture and heritage, tourism, investment and innovation, governance, and population attitudes and values. Therefore, the first part of this evaluation parameter is: do the channels and their messages correspond to the distinct facets of the country brand to which conversations need to be strategically aligned? Likewise, messages are worthless if they dont reach and engage the intended audience, for which both Solis and the Social Media Bible have defined best practices. But this is more challenging for countries due to the complexity of the wide variety of stakeholders, stakeholder touch points and political processes (Branding Institute, 2010). Stakeholders are those who can affect or be affected by that countrys actions, objectives, or policies. The Social Media Bible refers to stakeholders as your audience (Figure 6) (Branding Institute, 2010), and distinguishes between internal and external (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 719).

Figure 6 19

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA The Social Media Bible identifies stakeholders by their demonstrated and selfreported behaviors, attitudes, values and beliefs, and needs and preferences (Safko and Brake, 2009, pp. 721-2). Measuring audiences by these parameters is beyond the purview of this report, but whether targeting is evident on the channels is not. Thus the second part of the alignment parameter is: are the strategic stakeholders measured and targeted? 2.3.2 Channel integration and depth The medium as is important as the message, and thus the way the social media channels integrate to supplement rather than duplicate key messages is as important as their distinctive alignments. Equally important to engaging audiences to the right channels is their opportunity to interact on the networking channels of their choice, be it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or blogs. The easier it is for audiences to navigate a countrys social media channels in both directions, the more likely that it will be persuaded and influenced by the messages. The third best practice parameter therefore asks: how effective are channel integration and depth? 2.3.3 Channel tactics Best practices for tactical use of social media to engage audiences are defined in the Social Media Bible as: 1) communication, 2) collaboration, 3) education, and 4) entertainment. Communication focuses on shaping messages to evoke mutually beneficial responses or behaviors from the target audience, collaboration on using channels effectively to encourage and enable audience participation, education on the channels ability to persuade audiences with its expertise, and entertainment on the use of channel content, particularly multi-media, to increase interest and involvement of audiences (Safko and Brake, 2009, pp. 675-80).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA To leverage social media tools to persuade audiences, Solis says brands need to 1) react to and lead conversations, and 2) adapt to negativity by identifying patterns and perpetrators to enable targeted neutralization. (Solis, 2010). The third parameter used to evaluate Swiss social media is therefore: are the right tactics being used effectively to engage and persuade audiences? 2.4 Benchmark countries for social media best practices 2.4.1 Sweden Sometimes confused with Switzerland because of similar size and quality, Sweden ranks just after Switzerland in indexes like the NBI (10) and GCI (2), but has moved ahead of Switzerland on the WCY in 2011 (Figure 7)(IMD - WCY, 2011). Per Simon Anholt, "Sweden scores well because it is perceived to care about good governance, the environment, racial and cultural tolerance, poverty reduction and many of the other borderless issues that people really care about (Nylander, 2010). 2.4.2 Australia Also highly ranked on the major branding indexes, Australia launched a Brand Australia campaign in September, 2009, "to be better regarded as a dynamic and creative nation, a good global citizen and a strong business partner (Markessinis, 2010). As will be shown in chapter 4, this campaign includes a best practices, fully integrated use of multiple social media channels by Australias prime minister.

Figure 7

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 3. Methodology As defined by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009, p. 5), research is something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge. This chapter will describe the systematic way of this paper, including types of research and the scope and limitations of collecting it. 3.1 Types of research Types of research can be grouped under 1) purposes: exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory, and 2) approaches: deductive versus inductive and qualitative versus quantitative (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2009). 3.1.1 Purposes Exploratory purpose is best used to clarify a problem that hasnt been extensively researched. Descriptive helps picture the issues being studied, and explanatory focuses on relationships between variables. As there are not definitive case studies that correlate best practice use of social media and country brand rankings (Anholt, 2010), this paper primarily conducts exploratory research. 3.1.2 Approaches An inductive approach builds up a theory based on collected data, also called the bottom up approach, while deductive uses existing theory to analyse the data collected and draw conclusions, or the top down approach. As this paper is an evaluation of existing theories about nation branding and how its ranking results can be influenced by perceptions based on social media messages, it is deductive. Although qualitative research can be quantified and qualitative research quantified, such as a quantitative survey that measures qualitative judgments, they are considered distinct and separate here. Quantitative research counts and measures hard data, i.e. numbers, whereas qualitative evaluates and interprets data. Quantitative

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA processes the collected data, while qualitative uses concepts to explicate. Quantitative describes, explains, and predicts; qualitative interprets. Quantitative methodology uses surveys, observation, and experiments, while qualitative uses interviews, ethnography, and case studies. Quantitative leads to a hypothesis, qualitative to an evaluation (Goldschmid, 2010). Although this paper uses numbers and content analysis to draw some of its conclusions, the methodology is based on interpreting and evaluating, and therefore qualitative. 3.2 Scope of research Scope includes 1) data collection, 2) sample selection, and 3) limitations on that collection and sampling, such as reliability and validity. 3.2.1 Data collection This research evaluates how well Switzerland uses social media to support its country brand communication strategy aimed at correcting weaknesses and promoting strengths that country brand ranking indexes have identified. To support this evaluation, books, periodicals, journals, and online resources were consulted on the topics of country branding, communications and marketing theories, social media best practices, Switzerlands country brand, and the social media of Switzerland and two comparable countries. In addition, unstructured interviews, defined as purposeful discussions between two or more people used to gather valid and reliable data relevant to research questions and objectives (Saunders et.al, 2009), were conducted with experts and politicians directly involved in the main areas of this research. These included: 1) the head of Presence Switzerland, which is responsible for the brand communication strategy, 2) the head of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, 3) the Swiss president, and 4) her former Chief-of-Protocol. Appendix 1 lists the interview questions.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 3.2.2 Data sampling To substantiate the proposition that best practices social media can improve a countrys brand and competitive ranking, the two countries selected as benchmarks not only meet the criteria for social media best practices as defined in this research, but also have advanced in qualitative country brand competitiveness rankings. Sweden, which is similar to Switzerland in its competitiveness, quality of life and political and social stability, has been selected for its best practices use of social media channels to fulfill its communication strategy abroad. A secondary tenet of this research, that the country brand would be strengthened if the Swiss presidency were lengthened to two years and/or social media channel use expanded to give Switzerland a more durable face, has been supported through the primary research. As a benchmark, the Australian prime ministers social media channels are singled out for exemplary use of best practices. 3.2.3 Limitations on reliability and validity Reliability refers to whether other researchers would find similar information, and validity to the degree to which they could access the most relevant knowledge and experience of the subjects and reach valid conclusions (Saunders et. al. 2009). Data in this report most subject to questionable validity and reliability is the personal interviews. Not only did the interviewees veer off-topic and provide information that was beyond the scope of this paper, but their responses - as well as the perception of those responses - were subjective. Although efforts were made to include views that did not support the arguments of this paper, it is possible that some comments were either guided into more acceptable answers or overlooked. A second limitation, which was raised by the experts interviewed, is that country rankings reflect historical information: hard data is usually two years old and

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA soft data at least one. Thus the effect of negative social media events on country ranking surveys could be delayed or offset by subsequent positive events, although the effect also depends on the impact and subsequent memory of a negative event on the survey respondents. A final limitation is the validity of attributing Swedens improved ranking in the 2011 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook and in country brand elements like image abroad, culture, and heritage, or Australias improved ranking in governance to their use of best practices social media. Thus the emphasis is on their role as a benchmark through their use of social media best practices to achieve strategic country branding objectives.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 4. Data Presentation and Analysis 4.1 Primary research on Swiss brand ranking and communication strategy Interviews with experts in country brand ranking and Switzerlands image communication strategy were the source of primary data for this research. They provide the framework for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the Swiss country brand and the strategic use of Swiss social media channels to promote strengths and redress weaknesses. Switzerland has slipped in two of the four major rankings covered in this paper, the Anholt NBI (5 to 8)(Anholt, 2010) and IMDs World Competitiveness Yearbook (IMD - WCY, 2011). Last year, Stephane Garelli, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), warned that because its image has been under attack since the financial crisis of 2008, Switzerland must be a little more sensitive to what others are thinkingand not sit back and wait for things to happen or not (Brooks, 2010). Evaluating how social media can help Switzerland protect its brand from negative perception of its policies is not only the purpose of this thesis, but the stated main goal of 2011 for new Head of Presence Switzerland Nicolas Bideau, (FDFA - PRS, 2011), namely: to identify the usefulness of social media for Switzerland. 4 Questions that were used in the following interviews are in appendix 1. 4.1.1 Swiss country brand ranking Head, IMD WCY Background: Stephane Garelli helped develop the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) as director of the World Economic Forum and now heads the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) at IMD, where he is a professor of economics.

Phone interview with Nicolas Bideau, March 23, 2011. 26

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Brand strengths: Garelli confirmed that 30% of the WCY is derived from perceptions of those surveyed, or qualitative data. When asked how Switzerland had maintained its no 4 rank in 2010 despite negative publicity, he said it was due to Switzerlands greater resiliency than most countries during the financial crisis. Its burden of debt and its trade deficit are among the lowest in the world, contributing to a strong currency and economic stability, although the 2010 WCY reflected data that was one year old. Switzerland has also been very effective in building up brand image in China, where Swiss products, particularly luxury brands, are in great demand. Not joining the EU in 1992 was a blessing in disguise, as it forced Swiss companies worried about EU shutouts to look to Asia. The ongoing debt crisis in the EU has increased the importance of the booming Asian market for Swiss trade. Brand weaknesses: Garelli noted that the results of the WCY Executive Survey reflected the impact on public opinion of Swiss referenda and banking secrecy issues (Figure 8), with a drop in Swiss business efficiency from 3 to 7. Subcategories affected by the referenda were: attitudes towards globalization (17 to 22), image of Switzerland abroad (3 to 11), and flexibility and adaptability of the people (24 to 27). Banking secrecy impacted effectiveness of financial and banking regulation (16 to 20), and financial risk factors (22 to 29) (IMD World Competitiveness Center, 2010). Garelli concluded that although the image of Switzerlands stability and quality of life hadnt been affected by the negative publicity, government credibility had, and that it was necessary for Switzerland to protect the perception as well as the reality of its competitiveness.5

Phone interview with Stephane Garelli, March 23, 2011 27

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Figure 8 4.1.2 Swiss brand communication strategy Background: Nicolas Bideau has headed Presence Switzerland since January 2011. Presence Switzerland is responsible for implementing the Swiss Strategy for Communication Abroad 2010-11, which was adopted by the Federal Council on 19 December 2008 (Image Switzerland, 2011). It provides for three levels of communication abroad (Figure 9):

Figure 9 Country brand ranking: The Presence Switzerland website, ImageSwitzerland, publicizes Anholts NBI ranking to help promote brand Switzerland. But like Stephane Garelli, Bideau pointed out that the information used for the ranking is not recent. What we need is more immediate information about how were perceived, and we need to improve our communication platforms for that.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Brand strengths: Bideau said Switzerlands areas of strength include the economy, human security, and quality of life. Brand weaknesses: Bideau identified weaknesses as mainly political and therefore perceptual. He identified three major areas that had hurt Switzerlands image most: banking, EU policy, and human rights. Whats being written (on banking) is so wrong, but we havent successfully communicated our side. He felt Switzerlands EU policy is not clear, even to the Swiss. As for Switzerlands reputation in human rights, we have a long tradition of being tops in this, but no longer, he said. This has been hurt by referendums seen as intolerant, like the minaret ban. Channel alignment to audiences: Bideau explained that a new electronic system for monitoring all new media coverage of Switzerland was being developed for implementation in 2-3 months. To handle situations that generate damaging negative publicity, this will help us get the information quickly and respond quickly. Bideau agreed with Brian Solis on aligning conversations with the distinct facets of a brand and assigning those conversations to the facet specialists. He felt his experience working abroad as a diplomat and his studies at the University of Peking, as well as his background in the Swiss film industry, qualified him to do a Presence Switzerland page on the creative side, where I can provide a lot of content. But for the innovative side, we need to give this to someone with the knowledge. Bideau identified four social media channels that support the image communication strategy: brand image, information gateway, governance, and news media. Compared to the other three, the government channels reflect a very conservative, one way, let the information speak for itself tradition. But the news media channel, Swissinfo, is an important part of his communication strategy, as it

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA promotes Switzerlands best qualities through the broad coverage of its content. He said it could do more to defend Switzerland against negative media but, as the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation runs it, wants to maintain a degree of journalistic impartiality. He referred to the two Presence Switzerland websites as key instruments to reinforce brand Switzerland through basic provision of the image and thematic focal points, which is also stated on the sites (PRS, Presence Switzerland, 2010). Channel integration and depth: Bideau noted that two-way communication using social media networks is very important in the diplomatic world now. We cant continue with one-way. He believed a Twitter account would be a useful presidential tool. Using traditional ways to announce now, like press releases, arent effective. He said Micheline Calmy-Reys 2000+ fan Facebook page was a good start in interactive communication with external stakeholders, but we have to develop this platform. And it would really help to have a president for more than one year. In one year you can hardly establish anything. Originally, the president was the head of the foreign affairs department for as long as that person was a member of the Swiss federal council. But now five major parties each wanted their turn. However, there were examples in Swiss cantons such as Vaud where a four-year presidential term works very well indeed. 4.1.3 Swiss presidency and social media Background: Willy Hold, Chief-of-Protocol during the 2007 presidency, was asked about the politics in the Swiss federal council in general and the Swiss presidency in particular, as well as the feasibility of extending the presidential term so that durable presidential social media channels could be established and used to

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA promote government policies the presidency.6 A short interview was also conducted with Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss president for 2011.7 Presidential cabinet: Mr. Hold explained that the public relations support staff for both the president and the council member departments had increased. The presidents support team was now was a permanent team of 3-4 staff that would serve for four years, providing more continuity to the image of the presidential office. In addition, each federal councilor now has a support team of 10-20 staff to handle departmental communications instead of just one press officer. Thus more resources were available for social media-related activities. Government social media: Micheline Calmy-Rey has about 20 staff in the FDFA who handle her social media presence on the FDFA website and Facebook (Appendix 4). She said she is pleased that her fans have reached the 2000 mark, it remains to be seen how much her page would help. Both she and her chief press officer said that they still dont have adequate communications staff to expand into other social media channels for the president, like Twitter or a blog. Mr. Hold agreed that it would be difficult to allocate communications staff from a department team to do presidential social media for one year, and that the presidential cabinet is too small for this task. But he did suggest that PRS could perhaps work with the presidential team to build up presidential social media. Longer presidential term: Although both the Swiss parliament in 2004 and former president Doris Leuthard had pushed for a two-year presidential term (Wallace, 2010) to increase the effectiveness and image of the presidency, Calmy-Rey wasnt in a position to lobby for a change during her second presidential term.

6 7

Interview with William Hold, February 14, 2011, Fribourg, Switzerland. Interview with President Micheline Calmy-Rey, March 8, 2011, Geneva, Switzerland. 31

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 4.2 Evaluation of Swiss social media channels Six Swiss social media channels were analysed for their support of the communication strategy abroad through a) alignment of content to target messages and audiences, b) social media integration and depth, and c) tactical use of the four pillars of social media engagement and persuasion (Safko and Brake, 2009). The channels were: 1) Country communication strategy 2) Information gateway 3) Tourism, 4) Investment and Trade, 5) Governance, and 6) News media. Figure 9 shows the current integration and depth of these channels via their website home pages. As the brand strategy channel, image_switzerland.ch, is only accessible as a bookmark on the Presence Switzerland subpage of the FDFA website, eda.admin.ch (Appendix 2.1), it doesnt appear on the structural chart.

Figure 10

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 4.2.1 Brand communication strategy Image_Switzerland.ch Alignment to audiences: This site defines the communication strategy and Presence Switzerlands responsibility for presenting and fostering a positive image of Switzerland and for implementing the Federal Councils strategy on Switzerlands communication abroad. (FDFA - PRS, 2011). It will help achieve these two aims through measuring its image abroad, for which it also uses the Anholt Nation Brand Index. It presents a Swot analysis of the brand that does not reflect all the strengths and weaknesses identified by brand indexes like NBI and IMDs WCY. These have been added to the brand Swot in Figure 11. The site also identifies target audiences by countries and functions, on which Switzerlands external stakeholder analysis in Figure 12 is based. (Image Switzerland, 2011) Integration and depth: This site is only bookmarked at the bottom of the foreign affairs department (FDFA) home page (Appendix 2a), which is not a key brand communication channel. An FDFA link is on Swissworlds about page, and Swissinfo (news media), hyperlinks to it at the 3rd level (Swissinfo, 2011).

Figure 11 33

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Figure 12 4.2.2 Information gateway An information gateway should perform two key functions: a) provide an overview of the main elements that define a country, such as its culture, heritage, and values, and b) drive audiences to channels that help support the competitiveness of the country, such as tourism, investment and innovation, and governance. Switzerland.com The original portal to Switzerlands main sites, this is managed by the Swiss National Tourist Office. It provides text hyperlinks to tourism, information, and business sites. The tourism section includes Swiss Airlines and Europcar, giving the impression that this is a commercial portal. However, the three sites listed under the information section are sponsored by the Swiss government: swissworld.org (Switzerland in its diversity), swissinfo.ch (news and info), and ch.ch (the Swiss portal for everyday questions) (Appendix 2a). Swissworld.org

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Alignment to audience: About Swissworld explains that it promotes an authentic image of modern Switzerland worldwide. (PRS, Presence Switzerland, 2010). One of this channels self-defined strategic aims is to improve Switzerlands relatively low ranking of 20 for culture and heritage. But according to the site tags, the cultural facets of the Swiss brand that this PRS site promotes best are the alps, food, watches, Heidi, Zurich and Bern, which do not indicate that the target audience is being reached. Nevertheless, the content covering strategic areas: people, culture, education, politics, and scientific innovation, seems aligned with the aims of the communication strategy (Figure 13). The site is available in eight languages. The sites priority stakeholders are opinion leaders and media representatives in politics and business in England, France, Germany, Austria, and the USA, as well as all education-related stakeholders in the USA and China. One section that appears aimed at these stakeholders is a series of DVD audio and video presentations produced between 2005 and 2007 on political and educational topics (Presence Switzerland, 2007), but it is at the bottom of the home pages right sidebar, which is dominated by a weather map and a memory squares game that is also available on the government portal, ch.ch. Integration and depth: Presence Switzerland calls this the gateway to Switzerland (Appendix 2a). However, it is in the second level of the Swiss channel hierarchy (Figure 10), under Switzerland.com. Related site links are accessible from two to three levels down and their information is sometimes duplicated on the sites subpages. The government links page doesnt identify eda.admin.ch, where Presence Switzerlands structure and mission are described. A third level page, home>resources>link directories>official Swiss links, finally identifies sites by their

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA strategic function, such as governance, nation branding, tourism, news media, population, and economy. There are no social networking media bookmarks.

Figure 13 Tactics: Communication ** The content is rich, but if it is being tapped by its target audience, they must be passing through the sites RSS feeds to other channels like Swissinfo (news media) or government sites. The sites layout is static and dominated by hard-to-read text. Collaboration * The only opportunity to interact with this site is widgets for sharing content with various social networks. Education *** With its multilingual content and comprehensive topics of interest to educators and students, this site is clearly aimed at the audience under objective three of the communication strategy. However, ThinkSwiss.org, which is an FDFA- Presence Switzerland program promoting exchanges and sharing knowledge between the US and Switzerland uses several social media channels in the USA to target the same stakeholders there. (ThinkSwiss, 2011) Entertainment ** Pictures, videos, and games

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA are available through the three home page tabs: Swiss pics, specials, resources, but there is tab hover description. 4.2.3 Tourism mySwitzerland.com Alignment to audiences: Tourism is an area where Switzerland has lost ranking on the NBI index since 2008, dropping from position 8 to 11. This site obviously targets paying tourists and is full of relevant content. But the home page, with a crowded center panel layout, looks like an outdated tourist catalogue rather than a well-integrated representation of the whole experience of visiting Switzerland. Tabs lead to information that overlaps with other tabs or doesnt seem to suit the tab category. The meetings tab has a section on Switzerlands record in sustainability, for example, and the Swiss update tab about weather conditions includes private school information. There is liberal use of multimedia to engage audiences, although videos are not clearly distinguished, and an amusing home page video of two Swiss mountain men getting the big city treatment in Geneva. The site is available in 12 languages (Swiss national tourist office, 2011). Integration and depth: The site is only accessible through the portal, Switzerland.com, and has no bookmarks to its Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube social media channels or to other Swiss channels which focus on building knowledge of and interest in Swiss culture, governance, and current events. It also has no blog. Tactics: Communication ** Primarily one-way, but covers all Swiss tourism options. A useful feature is audio versions of some of the content. Collaboration * Has a rating feature but not comments in the hotel evaluation section, which requires three clicks and attentive reading to find. There are widgets for sharing content with social networks, but they only at the bottom of each page. Education** Good

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA coverage of geographical, sports, and events tourism, as well as hypertext links to other sites providing more in-depth information. Entertainment** There is good audio/visual content to stimulate interest in the natural sights of Switzerland, including 360 degree railway tours through Switzerland. There is also a feature for creating and sending a postcard, but its at the third level below the fold (bottom half of screen). Facebook- Switzerland/Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera. Alignment to audiences: A year ago this page had over 145,000 fans. It is now at 60,000 (Swiss national tourist office, 2011). Perhaps this is due to a clean up of the fan base to eliminate advertising by sellers of everything from art to music to online poker games. Bi-monthly posts promote Swiss tourism, but there is no interaction with the commentators. There is no indication that messages are aligned with audience interest, as they never generate more than 40 comments despite the large fan base. Video posts of ads from the YouTube channel generate the most interest outside Switzerland, whereas postings about Swiss cities tend to engage Swiss residents. The stakeholders appear to be both internal and external supporters, and many of them provide information about activities and sights of interest in Switzerland, which is a good way of doing mySwitzerlands work for it if content is also provided by the host. Integration: There is a website reference on the info page and a sidebar link to the latest YouTube video in all available languages on a page that looks like the website. There is also a link to the Flickr account, but no reference to any Twitter accounts. Tactics: Communication ** Collaboration * Entertainment ** Education **

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter myswitzerland_en,_d, Alignment to audiences: About 30 tweets are sent out per month in three languages, with 1/3rd eliciting comments from followers. Tweets, sometimes duplicated, appear generated by new content on the YouTube and website channels, but there is never reference to the Facebook fan page. English content focuses on special offers in Switzerland and Swiss promotional events in the U.K., as well as Swiss tourism rankings such as its no. 1 spot on the World Economic Forums GCI. Integration: The account has a hyperlink to its website and follows other Swiss and UK tourism and business accounts. As on the website, there are no links or tweets to the Facebook page, probably because posts there are so infrequent (Swiss national tourist office, 2011). Tactics: Communication ** Collaboration ** Education * YouTube myswitzerland Alignment to audiences: 328 video clips promoting Swiss tourism have been viewed 650k times since the channel began in 2007, averaging to about one a week. The most viewed are humorous ads which myswitzerland promotes through its other social media channels (Swiss national tourist office, 2011). Integration: There are hyperlinks to all other myswitzerland channels. Tactics: Communication ** Collaboration * Education ** Entertainment ** 4.2.4 Investment & Trade Osec.ch Alignment to audiences: Calling itself the business network of Switzerland, OSEC was mandated by the Swiss parliament in 2008 to be the umbrella organization for the promotion of exports, imports and investments, as well as for the promotion of Switzerland as a business location. (OSEC , 2010). Its site thus has tabs for these

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA functions. The export and invest tabs are aimed at external stakeholders. Under the invest tab, specific information on setting up companies in Switzerland is provided for nine countries in their languages. Six of these are targeted in the PRS communication strategy: China, France, Germany, Italy, India, and the USA. The site is laid out like a brochure with very small font, but includes the relevant information for its purposes. Some of the export subpages are in beta mode, but it has some multimedia content, with a promotional video and interactive map. There is a separate tab on Osec for a beta export blog in three languages, although only German is available. Integration and depth: The invest page has quicklinks to swissworld.org and the WEF Global Competitiveness Report, but only below the fold in tiny text. It also has an RSS news feed and bookmarks to its Facebook and Twitter accounts. The export page has bookmarks for its four social media platforms and a contact person on Xing and Linkedin that look tiny under large bookmarks for Osecs business partners. However, all social media is in German only, and thus appears aimed at internal stakeholders or Germans. Tactics : Communication ** The information targets its intended audiences of potential trade partners, but it is difficult to navigate and read. Collaboration * There is no opportunity to interact with the site, but there are links to interactive channels. Education ** Background information about Switzerland needed to make investment decisions is comprehensive. Entertainment * This is not a manifested tactic of the site. Facebook - Invest in Switzerland, Osec Alignment and Integration : Osec is in German and appears aimed at internal stakeholders for import/export issues. Invest in Switzerland, aimed at external stakeholders, has 26 fans and infrequent postings that mainly link to its Twitter and Youtube channels, the latter of which is not accessible from the web site.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Communication * Collaboration * Education ** Entertainment ** Twitter - InvestCH, ExportCH Alignment and Integration : InvestCH has interesting but infrequent tweets in English (97 in the past year) and a following of 97 with whom it does not interact here. Tweets often link to YouTube videos which are posted on Facebook. Lately it has starting retweeting from German-language ExportCH. Both accounts are accessible to/from the Osec website. YouTube - Osecworld Alignment and Integration : This channel was established in September 2010 and has not built up much content (31 videos) or audience (788 uploads) (OSEC youtube, 2011). The videos in English are posted to the Invest in Switzerland Facebook page and have content relevant to the targeted audience regarding the Swiss environment for establishing businesses. Its possible the small audience and lack of comments are not a negative indication if the viewers are key investment decision makers. Communication * Content is limited, especially for external stakeholders who arent German-speakers. Collaboration * None of the videos have comments, although they may generate contact through offline communication channels. Education ** Entertainment ** Blog - Exportblog Alignment and Integration: Labeled as a beta site, this channels posts by Anna Seig are in four languages but have not yet generated comments. The social media bookmarks for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube link to Osecs Germanlanguage channels, and theres also a social media plug-in for Facebook. The English tab labels are currently mixed with German content, so it appears too early to evaluate

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA this blog against social media best practices. There is fairly good visual content but the navigation is not clearly organized (Exportblog, 2011) 4.2.5 Governance ch.ch/switzerland.ch Alignment to audiences: There is no home page or map for this site; thus an overview for site navigation is missing. The default home is the individuals tab page, which is crowded with hyperlinks and categories of information in no logical order. The About ch.ch tab page states that this site, sponsored by the federal chancellery, is the national gateway to information about Switzerlands federal, cantonal, and local (commune) governments, which are primarily of interest to internal stakeholders and businesses thinking to relocate to Switzerland. The about Switzerland page duplicates much of the information provided by the other gateway, Swissworld, for which it provides a bookmark. Navigating to related sites is not facilitated. It takes three clicks, i.e. home>businesses> online services, to find the 10 point text hyperlink to the Osec business channel. Another Osec access is to enter Osec in the search field, but it leads to a screen filled with optional search parameters, which distract from the hyperlinked article describing Osec listed at the bottom of the page. The site design is distinct from other official government sites in its use of images and some multimedia, but it is also crowded with text and hyperlinks, and there is no consistent organization of information types on each sub page (Federal Chancellery, 2010). Integration and depth: The site itself does not feel integrated, as if information is added on without concerns for structural integrity. A lack of a site map may explain this impression. As for accessibility to/from related channels, access is through the

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Switzerland.com portals Information subheading, as well as the admin.ch (Federal Authorities) site. Text hyperlinks to other sites for business or tourism are on the tab pages with related content. There is no bookmark for the sites Twitter account, but the newly established blog posts have sharing bookmarks (Federal Chancellery, 2011). Tactics: Communication** There is a great deal of information but it is all one-way and difficult to navigate due to the lack of a home page or site map. The site seems to have been built in increments, without attention to the placement, navigability, or duplication of previous content or content of sites to which it links. Collaboration* The hypertext link to the German-language direct democracy blog affords an opportunity to comment, but there are currently no comments on the six posts to date. Education*** This seems to be the main purpose of this site, and there is indeed a wealth of information covering all aspects of Switzerland. Entertainment* Some multimedia content and widgets for games testing knowledge of Switzerland are aimed at this function, although they target internal stakeholders. Twitter ch.ch Alignment and Integration: Although this German-language account is for internal stakeholders, it could serve to improve the image of the Swiss population abroad by engaging Swiss to participate more in governance. However, it has only tweeted 155 times since September and has 138 followers. As noted, it is not accessible from the website. Blog Geschichten ueber demokratie (Stories about democracy) Alignment: As this blog is in the national languages, it appears aimed at Swiss citizens. It seems to be part of a campaign to improve Swiss voter turnout, which received bad press recently and could harm the image abroad of both Swiss

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA democracy and its population. However, the blog is only one month old and is not yet being promoted. 4.2.6 News Media Swissinfo.ch Alignment to audiences: At the bottom of the home page, a link to about us opens a page where Swissinfo say its role is to inform Swiss living abroad about events in their homeland and to raise awareness of Switzerland in other countries (Swissinfo - about us, 2010). It does this through nine-language news and current affairs articles about Switzerland in text and multimedia. (Swissinfo, 2011) The main topic categories do correspond to the country ranking strengths and weaknesses of Switzerland, and its news digest shows that it also runs stories about Swiss innovation and creativity, an area in which Nicolas Bideau has said Switzerlands image is weak. (Germanier, 2011) Since March, there has been an increase of articles that defend government actions that might be negatively perceived by potential supporters or leveraged by opponents, like Swiss neutrality does not mean indifference (Swissinfo, 2011), or The Swiss vote more than any other country (Slater, 2011), which counter recent charges that Switzerlands democracy is weak due to low voter turnout for referenda. This increase in damage control coincides with a March 23rd e-mail from Swissinfo that the Swiss government would continue to provide 50% of its funding provided it make(s) Swiss viewpoints and solutions heard in the global exchange of opinions.8 Integration and depth: Swissinfo has recently improved its channel integration and collaboration. Under the topical tabs, major Swiss channels whose content is relevant to the featured news stories can be accessed via quicklinks. (Appendix 2b) A

E-mail from W. Spahni, March 23, 2011. 44

HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA bookmark for Swissworld is provided on the pages for business, Swiss news, sci & tech, and travel & culture. The integration tab provides a new feature for collaboration as well as widgets to all swissinfo social media channels and blogs (Appendix 2b). Tactics: Communication *** Appealing format, easy navigation, and multiple channels of communication are used and linked to via related news story topics. Collaboration *** Can post photographs, comment on articles and blogs, and gain easy access to the sites social media networks where collaboration is encouraged. Since April, it is possible to link to Swissinfo social media via Facebook, Google, or OpenID accounts (Swissinfo Interactive, 2011). Education ** Covers many aspects of Switzerlands identity and provides quicklinks to other sites for more in-depth knowledge. Uses all forms of multimedia. Entertainment *** In addition to the rich content covering Swiss news and current affairs, the multimedia tab provides videos, audio slideshows, podcasts, livestream music, and picture galleries. (Swissinfo multimedia, 2011) Facebook - Swissinfo Alignment to audiences: The topics of the weekly posts dont seem targeted at any particular audience, although the specials page features stories about Islam and Switzerland, Federer, the Gotthard tunnel, and Swiss Unesco sites. (Swissinfo facebook, 2011) Despite a fan base of nearly 110,000 (Appendix 2b), posts rarely generate more than a few comments or a few dozen likes. A March 18th comment on a post linked to the Swissinfo article, How idealism drove Swiss development aid, is notable: Swissinfo reminds me of the paper The Hindu from South India. After reading the entire article patiently from top to bottom, u really don't feel any wiser as to what the article is really trying to say... (Swissinfo facebook, 2011).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Integration: This is the only official Swiss Facebook page which can be accessed to/from the related website. It also has a page for the YouTube channel, and it is possible to link personal Facebook profiles to the Swissinfo site. Twitter Swissinfo_e + eight languages Alignment to audiences : To date, 3000 tweets in English to 1,600 followers promote recent news stories from the website. However, if swissinfo is receiving any tweets, it is not responding to them here. YouTube Swissinfo_e + sp, jp, ar Alignment to audiences: Although this channel has a large subscription and over 1.9 million total views since it began in 2007, no videos this year have been viewed on YouTube more than a few hundred times. This could reflect more viewing is taking place on their website, such as an April 1st video on wind energy, Swiss support grows for wind energy, with only 61 YouTube views. As an embedded autoplay on the site, it wouldnt be counted in YouTube views. (Swissinfo youtube, 2011) Integration: The channel information has recently been upgraded with bookmarks to the website, Twitter, and Facebook channels. Blogs Write-on, Deutsche in der Schweiz, Migration, and Being Swiss Abroad Alignment to audiences: These four blogs are aimed at both internal and external Swiss nationals or residents. Swissinfo has recently added Japanese and Chinese blogs, perhaps in response to its new mandate to provide a more international view of Switzerland. It also might reflect the importance of expanding trade in Asia, which IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook head Stephane Garelli discussed in his interview (Appendix 1).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Of the four original blogs, only two appear to be currently active: Write-on, and Migration. Both average weekly posts that generate one or two comments. The Migration blog is written by Swiss living abroad, and Write-on by resident expats. 30% of their blogs are in the habits category, which seem to correspond more to blogger than audience interests, since the more prevalent topics dont generate more comments. Integration and depth: Blog posts are not referenced in any other Swissinfo social media such as Facebook or Twitter. Tactics: Interaction is not very evident on any of the blogs apart from the German, which generated a good volume of exchanges. However, the last post to this blog was mid-2010. Communication ** Collaboration * Education * Entertainment * 4.3 Evaluation of Swedish social media channels Background: Sweden was selected as a benchmark country because: a) it is equivalent to Switzerland in country competitiveness and ranking on the major indexes (Figures 2 and 7), b) it has a well-defined communication strategy which focuses on the distinct facets of the country brand that need promotion or strengthening, (Swedish Institute , 2011) and c) its channels were found to be aligned, integrated, have depth, and use the four pillars of social media tactics to support the strategy (Figure 14). The Swedish Institute (SI), which is the counterpart to Presence Switzerland, leads Swedens brand strategy implementation. The SI acts as a clear and coherent representative of Sweden and Swedish skills, values and experience in the world (Swedish Institute , 2011). SI is part of the Council for Promotion of Sweden Abroad, which includes the Swedish trade council, the invest-in-Sweden agency, the ministry of foreign affairs, and Visitsweden. This council aims to

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA collectively promote a positive image of Sweden, as well as to attract visitors, investment and knowledge to Sweden. The council explains that by communicating the same image of Sweden throughout its channels, it strengthens the messages of all channels (Visitsweden , 2011). The Swedish Institute is well staffed and funded to fulfill its mission to put Sweden on the map by using strategic communication that focuses on culture, society, education, and science (Swedish Institute , 2011): 90 staff in Stockholm and Paris, and an annual budget of about SEK 300 million, or CHF 43.6 million. As the Swedish channels are under a centralized, coordinated management, they reflect a top-down coherence, alignment, integration, and depth of social media. Thus they can be evaluated globally by best practice rather than by channel.

Figure 14

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA

4.3.1 Brand communication strategy Si.se On its website, the Swedish Institute gives its mandate to promote Sweden through strategic communication and exchange in the fields of culture, education, science, and business (Swedish Institute , 2011). It further defines how it will use social media to that end as follows: At websites such as Sweden.se, Studyinsweden.se and Workinginsweden.se, but also via the web-based community Swedenintouch.se and other social media, we foster an updated image of Sweden and seek to engage visitors in dialogue. Also, by being innovative and using the latest technology in our digital communication, we help create an image of Sweden as a country at the cutting edge. (Swedish Institute - About Sweden, 2011) The website design, with its moving panels of images alternating with text that can be click-expanded for more details, exemplifies this focus on innovative use of technology, as do the topics in the panels themselves. These include social media, studying and working in Sweden (which links to three related websites), international networks, films, designs for children, and public diplomacy, which has a video clip of a 2010 seminar on Swedens image abroad held in Visby, Sweden. Simon Anholt, creator of the Nation Brand Index in which Sweden ranks 10th (Anholt-GfK Roper, 2010), was the special guest and expert speaker, and there is a link to his website. There are also bookmarks for sharing with 335 social media networks (Swedish Instititute, 2010). 4.3.2 Channel alignment to target audiences Sweden.se Navigating through Swedens social media via the Swedish Institutes gateway to all strategic communication channels is like walking through IKEA. Channels are logically grouped around related content that is clearly differentiated for

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA its purpose and use. Large bookmarks (signposts) above the fold on the home page alert the visitor to all available social networking channels where interaction is possible, including Swedens news media channel, the Local, where the Swedish Institute has its own selected content as well as related blog links under the follow Sweden tab. (The Local, 2011) The home page menu covers each strategic facet of the country brand, including: society, lifestyle, tourism, work, business, and education. The format and organization of each subpage is identical, so the navigation is the same through all Sweden.se subpages as well as the home pages of its linked channels (Sweden.se, 2011). Each page banner has 3-4 scrolling illustrations beside a tagline that reinforces the strategic aim of presenting Sweden as a cutting edge country. The Lifestyle tagline is listen, read, watch, explore, business is about embracing new ideas, and tourism says explore our horizons. FAQs in each pages right bar target the by anticipating its questions, such as where can I find tourist information about Sweden, how can I find information about companies in Sweden, or where can I find the information I need about studies in Sweden? The quick facts menu tab has a social feed which features Swedish fashion, food, music, and pictures for daily delivery to Facebook, an RSS feed, or an embedded in your website option to create a strategic personal communication link between the individual and news about Swedish culture. (Sweden.se, 2011) The audience is persistently targeted with messages that support the strategic aims. The business subpage, for example, underscores Swedens skills, values, and experience with information it labels ethics and business, business and culture, and innovation as hyperlinks above the bookmark for Swedens business channel, Investsweden.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Investsweden.se The business website for Sweden is one of four key facet channels that are linked to Sweden.se subpages which engage the target audience, then take it to the channel of specialization and interaction. Although these key facet websites dont have the same homepage menu as Sweden.se, they have a similar look and feel in the use of banner illustrations, font size and style, and overall design. Investsweden has what Safko and Brake (2010) call sticky content above the fold that draws the visitor in with catchy taglines superimposed on thematic illustrations, such as 10 Reasons to choose Sweden, what we do for you, and Sweden a green datacenter location. These themes underscore the strategic aim to communicate Swedens innovation and use of cutting edge digital technology in an environmentally sound way (Investsweden, 2011). Sweden.gov.se The site of Swedens government offices includes several illustrations and a video of the prime ministers latest press conference. Bookmarks in the right column link targeted audiences to Swedens gateway Sweden.se, a directory for the subpages of all Swedish missions abroad, and websites for studying in Sweden, Swedish environmental technology in China, Swedens policies and activities in environmental and human rights, and the government newsletter, areas which reinforce and are aligned with Swedens strategic communication goals. There is an Accessibility page on which the visitor can tailor the sites appearance, including font size, spacing, and text and background colors. It also provides a synthetic speech function which reads back website content for those who prefer audio to written communication (Regeringen.se, 2011).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 4.3.3 Channel integration and depth The Swedish channel site map (Figure 14) illustrates the integration and depth of its social media. With the exception of the government site, every channel has a blog and accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, all of which are bookmarked on the website home page above the fold. However, the government site links to homepages for all its embassies, as well as tools for tailoring the page layout to individual preferences (Regeringen.se, 2011). The education website and its related channels can be used as an example of how all Swedish channels conform to best practices for social media integration and depth (Appendix 3b). Studyinsweden.se The strategic purpose of this website is to attract foreign students to Swedish higher education institutions. Its reference to learning Swedish as a foreign language supports the strategic aim is to increase Swedens skilled labor workforce with skilled locally trained immigrants. The channel utilizes all social media channels to interactively communicate with current and prospective students. Like the gateway channel, Sweden.se, it has bookmarks above the fold for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blog channels. Each channel repeats website content to provide interactive opportunities on the different platforms. Facebook - studyinsweden Posts on the Facebook page promoting student bloggers are linked to their Twitter accounts, and their tweets refer back to the Facebook and blog posts, all of which focus on promoting higher education in Sweden. The Facebook page also links to Swedens official community website for international students, Swedenintouch.se. Posts are frequent, as are comments by the fan base (Appendix 3b).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 4.3.4 Channel tactics Th e final parameter measuring Swedish social media channels will be their use of the four pillars of social media strategy: communication, collaboration, education, and entertainment (Safko and Brake, 2009, p. 675). Communication*** The Council for Promotion of Sweden Abroad aims to ensure that the relevant authority optimally promotes the major facets of Swedens brand, be it in tourism, investment, government, or education. Each channel website explains who its target audience is, such as workinginsweden.se, which is aimed mainly at non EU/EEA citizens interested in working in Sweden for at least one year (Swedish Institute, 2011). The council believes a unified and consistent image of the Swedish brand across channels will help reinforce each facet and increase its competitiveness. This may have helped make Sweden the leading country for image abroad in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, surpassing Switzerland for the first time in five years. Even more impressively, Sweden has advanced two positions to number 4 in the overall IMD ranking for 2011, ahead of Switzerland (Figure 7). Collaboration*** The Swedish social media site map and the uniformity of design and navigation via the Sweden.se gateway to all key channels (Appendix 3a) illustrate how Sweden has integrated and leveraged each channel to support the promotion of its country brand. Each channel contains links to similar shared content that encourages audience interaction on the platform of choice, be it Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or blogs. Education*** Notable on all Swedish channels is the comprehensive, clearly expressed, easy-to-navigate information about all aspects of Swedish life. The gateway differentiates clearly between Swedish society, lifestyle, tourism, work,

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA business, and education. Each channel reinforces the message that the Swedish way is innovative, technologically advanced, and environmentally aware, whether it is experienced as an investor, a tourist, or a prospective student or immigrant. Each website features FAQs to help visitors quickly find answers to the most common questions. Blogs back each channel as well with frequent informative postings. An April 27th higher education blog, Study in Sweden (in multiple languages), promotes the current Chinese version of the blog site and upcoming Arabic and Russian versions this summer (Petersen, K., 2011). Entertainment*** The use of multi-media is pervasive throughout Swedens social media channels, including all its websites. Because of the integration and depth of each channel, it is easy to interact with Swedish bloggers or tweeters. Channels are updated frequently to maintain audience interest. The sustainability blog, for example, posts every few days. An April 14th blog about threatened coral reefs, Images that want to inspire action, also featured a 3-minute YouTube video (Jeswani, S., 2011), and was posted on the Sweden.se Facebook page. Likewise, 68 fans liked a recent study blog about innovation in Sweden (Boborg, N., 2011). 4.4 Evaluation of Swiss and Australian country leader social media The main purpose of establishing a strong social media presence for a country leader is to provide a rapid response platform to negative media, not only because leadership social media is more visible, but because it is more autonomous from the other branches of governance. A recent example of a government leader effectively using rapid response social media was when the US Census bureau neutralized negative Republican tweeting and blogging about its costly Rose Bowl ad (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). However, a limitation to building up a social media presence for the Swiss presidency has been its collective rather than unitary head of state,

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA which rotates through the seven Federal council members on an annual basis. Although a recently established four-year presidential cabinet can provide more continuity to the social media presence of the head of state, the personal interviews in this research also explored the feasibility of extending the Swiss presidential term, which has been proposed in the past by the Swiss parliament as well as former presidents like Doris Leuthard (WRS , 2010). Micheline Calmy-Rey is Switzerlands president for 2011 and has been the minister of foreign affairs since 2003. Swedens foreign minister, Carl Bildt, has several active social media channels, but its prime minister does not. Thus Australia, a mid-sized country similar in country ranking indexes to Switzerland but with a best practices social media presence for its prime minister, Julia Gilliard, was used as a benchmark. 4.4.1 Swiss president social media admin.ch/eda.admin.ch Alignment to audiences: Admin.ch is the website of the Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation, and eda.admin.ch is the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). The admin.ch homepage is a densely populated, text-based directory for all government departments. A hyperlink for the Federal Council page leads to a cutout photo and welcome letter from the Swiss president (Appendix 4a), at the bottom of which is another hyperlink to a page that describes the presidency and gives a short bio of Micheline Calmy-Rey, president for 2011. One of the many admin.ch text hyperlinks leads to the FDFA website, eda.admin.ch, which has two sections in the left column for internal and external stakeholders: traveling and living abroad, and traveling and living in Switzerland. These sections are illustrated with arrows leading from and to a small

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA outline of Switzerland. The News section contains pdf format press releases in French and German focusing on human rights issues and Switzerlands provision of aid and political support to developing countries. The page is static, with few illustrations, no multimedia, and multiple small pitch text hyperlinks that are difficult to decipher. Each hyperlink in turn leads to another static page that is full of text and devoid of images. Integration and depth: There are bookmarks below the fold of the homepage for Swissworld.org (Switzerland in its diversity), swissinfo.ch (news and info), and ch.ch (the Swiss portal for everyday questions) (Appendix 2a), but no Facebook link. Facebook Micheline Calmy-Rey Alignment to audiences: A Facebook page for Micheline Calmy-Rey was established in December, 2009 to support her position as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), which she has held since 2003. She currently has 2100 fans (Appendix 4a). Her Facebook page has bi-weekly posts that are aimed at German, French, and Italian-speaking stakeholders. Four round table meetings throughout Switzerland have been posted as events this year with no Facebook fan attendees. Other posts cover her visits with foreign dignitaries, important Swiss institutional anniversaries, and comments on global events such as the social unrest in Northern Africa. Her posts average 10 likes and a few comments, but her French Easter greeting had 44 likes, the highest number since she assumed the Presidency. Her page currently has 35 photos of her activities and four videos. Integration and depth: There are no links between the government websites featuring Calmy-Rey to her Facebook page, nor are there links from Facebook to any other social networks like Twitter, where Calmy-Rey has a protected following of two, or YouTube, where there is no official channel. The most viewed videos of her

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA in 2011 are her opening speech at the World Economic Forums Davos meeting (1,511) and her appearance on a Swiss-German television talk show in January 2011 (1,279). A July, 31st 2009 press conference with Calmy-Rey and Hillary Clinton to announce an agreement on resolving the litigation between the USA and UBS has been viewed 1,027 times on YouTube (US Dept of State , 2009). In general, videos of Calmy-Rey draw inarticulate, negative comments and less than a hundred viewings. Tactics: (all channels) Communication**, Collaboration*, Education***, Entertainment*. One-way communication and education predominate in Micheline Calmy-Reys social media channels, but none of the channel messages are linked or reinforced by other channels. There are generally positive comments on her Facebook page, whose messages focus on strengthening Switzerlands reputation as a humanitarian, exemplary democracy to German, French, and Italian-speaking stakeholders. The only attempt to entertain is on the Facebook page, although it doesnt use multimedia to engage interest in the postings. 4.4.2 Australian prime minister social media pm.gov.au Alignment to audiences: The website of the Prime Minister (PM) of Australia, Julia Gillard, promotes activities the PM undertakes for the good of Australias internal stakeholders, as well as her governments support for global events and initiatives, like International Womens Day and the UN-sanctioned invasion of Libya. The content is very sticky, with a full-width banner which scrolls photos of the PMs most recent activities under tabs for a blog, photos and videos, the press office, the PM, and her cabinet (Appendix 4b) above the fold. Bookmarks to her social media channels are also located above the fold. Clicking on any of these tabs leads the

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA visitor to pages rich in multimedia content, all of which can be shared via social media bookmarks. Integration and depth: The website is accessible as a quick link at the bottom of the government website homepage (Australian government, 2011), and via all of the PMs social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. In addition, the tab for Government leads to the websites for each of the cabinet members as well as their related social media channels (Australia Deputy PM, 2011). Facebook Julia Gillard Alignment to audiences: The PMs ca. 100,000 fan base appears active, as there are hundreds of likes to her frequent posts on topics of both internal and external interest, from the Japanese earthquake to the UN position on Libya to a carbon tax in Australia. There are sometimes hundreds of negative comments on controversial issues, as there are for other leaders like Barack Obama (BarackObama, 2011), although they usually involve a few individuals having lengthy exchanges. Integration: Featured content from the webpage is repeated in Facebook posts, as are homepage press conferences by the PM. The info page provides hyperlinks to the PMs website, the Labor Party website, and Twitter and Flickr channels. Twitter Julia Gillard Alignment and Integration: The PMs Twitter channel has over 95,000 followers and follow over 55,000 tweeters. (Appendix 4b). She appears to have an international following, many of whose twitter accounts are in foreign languages, and she has tweeted 330 times since beginning in July 2010, or once a day. The channel is linked to her partys website, alp.org.au. Tactics (all channels): Communication *** The PMs messages are differentiated for internal and external stakeholders and reinforced through

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA multimedia and repetition on her different social media channels, where her following or fan base reflects the diversity of her stakeholders. Collaboration ** Presence on all social media channels affords audience participation. Education *** Information on the PMs activities is clearly and concisely explained and reinforced on all social media channels. Entertainment *** All the PMs major press conference videos are available on her website and Facebook channels, and there is a liberal use of photographs and graphics to illustrate messages.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 5.0 Discussion of results This research has evaluated the impact of country ranking indexes like the Anholt Nation Branding Index and the IMD World Competition Yearbook on the communication strategy of Switzerland and how Swiss social media channels use best practices to support the strategy. Swedens use of social media channels to support its country branding strategy was used as a benchmark, as was the social media of Australias prime minister. Presence Switzerland (PRS) is mandated to implement the communication strategy abroad, but President Micheline Calmy-Rey and Nicolas Bideau, the head of Presence Switzerland, have said that their funding is insufficient to adequately exploit social media channels. The Swedish Institute (SI) has a similar mandate for Sweden, with 90 staff versus 30 in PRS, and an annual budget of CHF 43.6 million versus PRSs CHF 7.4 million (Image Switzerland, 2011) (Swedish Institute , 2011). Swedens superior staffing and budget no doubt help contribute to its superior use of social media channels. While lack of resources might limit the depth of channels that can be supported, alignment and integration are more a function of coordinated management of existing resources by the key channel owners, such Swedens Council for Promotion of Sweden Abroad. Thus it is valid to compare Swiss alignment and integration best practices with those of the two benchmark countries, (Appendix 5) and make recommendations for how Swiss social media can be better managed to promote and protect its country brand, even with limited resources. 5.1 Swiss channels versus Swedish best practices alignment to audiences The communication strategy for Switzerlands image abroad focuses on promoting understanding of Switzerlands political system and policies, and increasing awareness of its competitiveness and innovativeness, particularly in

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA transport and the environment. Its target audiences are opinion leaders, media representatives, politicians, scientists and students in its major trading partner countries (Figure 13). Swedens Council for Promotion of Sweden Abroad, which is led by the SI, aims to promote a positive and consistent image of Sweden throughout its social media channels to attract visitors, investment, and knowledge to Sweden. Communication strategy. As the communication strategy unites all key brand elements to a common purpose, a channel aligned to the strategy provides an effective way of presenting a countrys multi-faceted brand. The Swiss and Swedish social media channel maps in Figures 10 and 14 illustrate how each country has or has not accomplished this. Switzerlands communication strategy is not the gateway by which all other channels are accessed. Furthermore, access to Switzerlands communication strategy website, Image_Switzerland, is buried in the fourth level of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) website, which is not identified as a key strategic channel. The Swedish channel for the countrys communication strategy, Si.se, is listed at the bottom of the Sweden.se homepage as the administrator of the site, which is both Swedens strategic channel gateway and its information channel. It presents the strategic aims of all Swedens key channels, which then reinforce and build on thee aims in above the fold taglines, clickable images, and short descriptions. Although the five different Swiss channels do correspond to the strategic facets of the country brand, their aims and target audiences are not apparent as with Swedish social media. Their content doesnt consistently help audiences identify their interests via tags that correspond to the strategic brand elements, or offer above the fold FAQs on each brand channel that correspond to target audience interests.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Information gateway. Switzerlands information gateway aim to convey messages about politics or innovation or environmental policies is not reaching target audiences according to its most popular tags. The abundance of topics to choose from, all crowded into table-of-contents style hyperlinks which lead to more hyperlinks indexing a variety of other sites in various languages, makes it confusing and timeconsuming for audiences to find strategic content. Swedens information gateway, by comparison, features strategic topics on the home page, such as sustainability and innovation. Key content is labeled as tabs with hover descriptions, or bulleted under major subheadings throughout the site. A media room link in the footer accesses the pressrooms of all key channels. (Sweden media room, 2011) The news portal tabs are by target group, i.e. news, business, live & work, and study. Two clicks reach strategic messages anywhere on the gateway, compared to three to five clicks on Switzerlands gateway. Tourism. Tabs on Myswitzerland target tourists by type, activities, and interests. It is the most visual of channels, with many illustrations, panoramic views of Switzerland, and video clips, including a section uploaded by visitors themselves. But its homepage is cluttered with Swiss geography and hotel options, while Swiss cultural tourism is hidden on subpages even though it needs reinforcing according to the Nation Branding Index. The site doesnt identify itself as official and looks very commercial compared to other key channels. Swedens tourism site, Visitsweden, calls itself Swedens official website for tourism and travel information. It targets companies and journalists as well as tourists, with features like a pressroom to help journalists plan press trips to Sweden or write about Swedish tourism. It also has links to Swedens priority country press offices for Swedish tourism in the local languages. (Visitsweden , 2011)

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Investment & Trade. A comparison of the homepages of the Swiss (Osec) and Swedish (investSweden) business sites highlights Swedens more precise focus on target audiences. Osecs banner is a static blurred picture, while Swedens is clickable pictures backing its strategic messages: datacenters (green technology), what we do for you, and why Sweden. Osecs main headings are either too general or too verbose: news, exports out of Switzerland, imports into Switzerland, and investments into Switzerland. Swedens are: competitive Sweden, case studies, and events. Osec looks clunky and dated, and lacks an engaging sticky interface between content and the audience. Information is organized into long table of contents and it takes several clicks through a maze of tiny font hyperlinks to find, for example, 16 informative videos that describe the competitiveness of the Swiss business sectors. However, there is no way of knowing this until one actually lands on the video page. It takes six clicks to find content on Swiss innovativeness, a quality Nicolas Bideau said requires more promotion. The fifth click hyperlink, other organizations providing assistance, gives no indication that it leads to information about Switzerlands federal innovation promotion agency, CTI. Invest Swedens homepage advantage Sweden tab, by comparison, lists 10 illustrated reasons for investing in the country, the first of which is innovation. Governance. Switzerlands government channels, as noted by Nicolas Bideau, reflect a text-oriented, one-way communication style, with lengthy documentstyle text hyperlink indexes that lead to other indexes, and pdf downloads without descriptive hover text. This does little to help clarify to the foreign public Switzerlands political concerns and positions. (FDFA - PRS, 2011).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA The governments communication strategy abroad is found on a subpage of the About Switzerland tag, entitled Promotion Switzerland. It describes Presence Switzerland, along with the four key Swiss channels evaluated in this research, as Swiss organizations fully dedicated to offering services to the public (Federal Chancellery, 2010). While the FDFA homepage, eda.admin.ch, more clearly targets external stakeholders. It reflects the same crowded, official documentation style of most Swiss governmental sites, and has no pressroom with multimedia content. By contrast, the Swedish government homepage uses visuals and whitespace to highlight key messages, and it has bookmarks for both the brand strategy gateway and the Sweden abroad website above the fold. The latter links to commonly formatted pages for every Swedish mission in the world. Its press office clearly targets media representatives, with frequent webcasts and an International press center with subscription-only video resources for foreign journalists. (Sweden abroad, 2011) News Media. Swissinfo, the Swiss news and media channel, very effectively uses social media best practices to engage and entertain target audiences, although the connection to Switzerlands strategy abroad is not clear. It defends the Swiss position in areas where the image has been weakened (sometimes by Swissinfo news stories), and links them to the relevant social media channel. Swissinfo recently added a Swissworld bookmark on four of its eleven tab subpages related to Swissworld topics, and several Swiss channels link to Swissinfo articles via subpage hyperlinks to help reinforce their messages. As the only channel which links to and from all other strategic Swiss channels, Swissinfo functions as the unofficial gateway for Swiss image-building, even though it is not officially responsible for managing Switzerlands brand image.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA By comparison, Sweden.se uses its news media channel, the Local, to reinforce rather than substitute for strategic content. It provides centralized access to news and commentaries on the Local, and furthermore has its own tab on the Local homepage, Follow Sweden, which covers selected content and links to the six blogs among the Locals 23 that are managed by SI (The Local, 2011). Summary. Swiss channel home pages are predominantly content indexes of text hyperlinks leading to more hyperlinks without a consistent format or apparent strategic focus. Use of clickable visuals ranges from very good on channels for tourism and news media to poor on the information gateway, investment, and government channels. (Appendix 2a). Each Swedish channel homepage, on the other hand, has commonly placed above-the-fold clickable visuals, taglines, and FAQs that reinforce the channels aims and guide target audiences to strategic content. Swiss channels make no use of sticky taglines to define their purpose, FAQs are variously located and formatted, and pictures frequently dont lead to additional content they simply illustrate it, in the static brochure design that predominates on Swiss channels. 5.2 Swiss versus best practices channel integration and depth Integration: The lack of integration in Swiss social media can be seen in the comparison table of Swiss and Swedish social media channels (Appendix 5). It appears Swiss channels were developed independently and incrementally linked on the detail level, whereas Swedish channels were built top down as a harmonious, integrated whole. Thus they reflect streamlined homepage commonalities of design and navigation, while Switzerlands channels reflect different stages in web design technology as well as the varying communication skills and style of their sponsors. Interfaces between Swiss channels are hyperlink add-ons or variously placed

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA bookmarks at all levels rather than fundamental, recognizable menu elements at higher levels (Appendices 2a and 3a). Not only does Switzerlands official gateway not lead to all other channels, but Swiss channel domains range from .com to .org to .ch, a further sign of disparity. The de facto gateway to which all other channels refer is the Swiss news media channel, which often replaces rather than reinforces the image-building efforts of Switzerlands other major channels. With links to Swissinfo articles usually buried in Swiss channel hyperlinks, its easier and more engaging to access Swiss strategic channels, if at all, via the Swissinfo site. Although Swissinfos mission includes raising awareness of Switzerland, it never refers to Switzerlands strategy for communication abroad. Conversely, Swedens social media site map in Figure 14 demonstrates how coordinated management by the owners of a countrys key strategic channels results in best practices use of social media to reinforce the strategic messages of a countrys communication strategy in its quest for a competitive advantage. Depth. The lack of depth in Swiss social media has been ascribed to inadequate funding by those responsible for the online country communication strategy. However, government funding of the Swissinfo news media channel was recently renewed, enabling it to continue to support its well-subscribed major social network channels and four blogs. Perhaps the government believes its social media money is better spent on media professionals, but this delegates Switzerlands image promotion to journalists whose first priority is to report Swiss news impartially, however damaging it may be to the Swiss brand. Swedens social media channels, by comparison, disseminate their messages to all interactive networks. The exception is the government, which has created homogeneous websites for all Swedish missions,

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA some of which, like the USA, do have social networking depth (Sweden abroad, 2011). 5.3 Swiss versus best practices channel tactics The evaluation of Swiss channel use of the four pillars of social media to engage and persuade audiences found that only the news media channel Swissinfo scored top marks in communications, collaboration, education, and entertainment. As noted by Brian Solis, good social media facilitates conversations. Websites should engage and persuade audiences looking for interaction to move to social networking platforms. Without depth, channel conversations are very limited, and as illustrated by Switzerlands social media site map (Figure 10), only its news media channel offers multiple networking opportunities. But it does not reinforce strategic messages throughout channels as effectively as Swedens social media. For example, an evaluation of one of Swedens strategic channels, Study in Sweden, found optimal conversational depth. A recent home page story: low on cash was repeated on its Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels, with a video tiein as well, offering audiences four conversational touch points (Appendix 3b). Switzerlands presentation of educational opportunities for foreigners, by comparison, is split among several channels. Swissworld.org and ch.ch have information about public schooling, while mySwitzerland.com covers private schooling. No single channel unites all educational opportunities for foreign students, nor are there social networks for them. A Facebook page that seems to target them has 122 fans and an invalid web site link. (StudyinSwitzerland, 2011) 5.4 Swiss versus best practices country leader social media Background: As noted, a disadvantage in establishing a social media suite for Switzerlands presidency lies in its short, one-year rotation among the Swiss 7-

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA member governing cabinet. However, a 4-year presidential support team has now been established to help provide some continuity to the promotion of the office, and primary research found that the presidential term will very possibly be extended by the Swiss federal parliament to two years in the near future. A strong social media presence for the Swiss presidency, however ceremonial, could be key to providing an effective, rapid counter-attack against negative media coverage of Swiss actions. Summary: This papers evaluation has shown that presidential social media in Switzerland is compromised both by the dual role of and the one year term of each president, which is too short a time to build up a significant social media presence unless the incumbent already has one as a federal councilor. This is the case with Micheline Calmy-Rey, whose Facebook page was established, and still reflects, her role as Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs. But her fan base has only grown by about 2.5% per month, perhaps because she uses no other social media channels to engage them. The Australian Prime Ministers Facebook monthly fan base growth rate is over 10%. Not only does she use all social media channels, but messages are repeated across channels linked with above-the-fold bookmarks (Appendix 4b). Her pressroom uses frequent videos to disseminate and generate interest in her media releases. And she follows over 50,000 Twitter accounts, setting the stage for counter-attacks to negative press on multiple platforms, which are as well monitored as they are subscribed to.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Conclusion and Recommendations Summary: According to the country branding indexes and ranking experts that this research has consulted in publications and through primary research, Switzerland has one of the strongest country brands in the world. It consistently ranks among the top ten on all major indexes that assess a countrys competitiveness. This research has also found that Switzerland uses its performance in the facets of the Anholt Nation Brand Hexagon to help it formulate its communication strategy abroad, and has social media channels that correspond to these facets, namely: tourism, exports, governance, investment and immigration, culture and heritage, and people. But in the past few years, Switzerland has lost rank in some of the NBI Hexagon facets, notably immigration and people. Furthermore, this year Switzerland dropped one position on the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), while Sweden, which was found by this research to support its communication strategy abroad with a best practices social media presence, advanced two. Although it was not the remit of this paper to prove a direct correlation between best practices social media and country ranking, it demonstrated that Switzerland is not using social media best practices to support its country brand communication strategy, particularly when compared to the best practices use of Sweden. Thus a correlation cannot be discounted. Country brand analysts have warned that Switzerland cannot afford to rest on its laurels, as countries are competing more than ever to export their products and services and import tourists, companies, and skilled labor. Nor can it depend on traditional one-way or one-to-one communications to promote Switzerland abroad, such as that still practiced by most of its social media channels, when it is being attacked through multiple social networking channels on a global, real time scale. It

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA needs to better leverage its own channels to promote its strengths and address its weaknesses. Although Switzerland is about to implement a comprehensive online monitoring tool for early identification of negative media events, it also needs to establish a government social media presence on all major platforms, preferably in the presidents name. This will help to neutralize attacks from countries or companies who compete with Switzerland for business before they cause serious damage to Switzerlands valuable reputation and endanger its competitiveness. Recommendations: This research has led to six recommendations to help Switzerland achieve best practices use of social media to promote and protect its country brand: 1. Establish a national identity. Switzerland does it better. Switzerland needs a social media tagline that unites all facets of the national identity. Switzerland has been called a model state, the Swarovski of countries, exclusive and limited. In his book, Places, Simon Anholt said that although Switzerland has a strong country brand, it has a weak national one. If Swiss social media channels featured Swiss excellence that is not disembodied and is linked to its strategic messages as well as the products for which it is famous, this could help to brand the national character irrespective of language or political differences, which are too often blamed for a lack of a Swiss national identity. Brief descriptions of notable achievements (i.e. he invented this, or she cured that, or they helped build the longest tunnel in Europe, etc.) related to a specific channel could be featured in clickable banner images, and changed on a regular basis or as new achievers made their mark. 2. Harmonize channel alignment. To ensure consistency and pervasiveness of Swiss national brand promotion, a channel re-alignment, similar to what Sweden

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA has established, would transform what now seems like repetitive, uncoordinated content into complimentary, targeted content. A top down design would help to reinforce the Swiss national brand image while still communicating to the target audiences of each channel. Perhaps the Swissinfo homepage tab design could be used as a basis (Appendix 2c). The key is to make all channels uniform in layout and navigation, giving audiences one launch pad from which to access different channels that capture and lead them to the content they seek anywhere in the Swiss social media world with a minimum of effort. Exclusivity could be further reinforced for special target audiences like opinion leaders or media and educational representatives by offering subscription-based multimedia access to special content. 3. Increase channel depth. All major Swiss channels need to establish themselves on all major social networking channels and provide above-the-fold bookmarks. Key image-strengthening messages, such how the Swiss vote more than any country on earth, should be repeated on each social network platform to reinforce messages and enabling audiences to interact on the channel of their choice. A channel master could provide feedback to noteworthy comments to demonstrate that the host is also engaged. Even Lady Gaga interacts with her 35 million Facebook fans (Gaga, 2011). Countries rarely do this, so Switzerland could stand out if it occasionally responded on topics that generated exceptional interest, especially if its negative. Given the manpower required to sift through and respond to fan comments, interns with clear instructions on how to represent government interests online, which has been established by countries like New Zealand and the USA for government employees, could be implemented (US Dept of State , 2009).

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Repeating messages on the major networking channels would provide simplified summaries of text from web pages or blogs to appeal to younger audiences in particular. The option to tailor screen fonts and colors, such as that provided by the Swedish government sites accessibility page, could help engage older audiences. 4. Engage through entertainment. Official Swiss social media is no fun. Theres ample information, but apart from the news media channels, it takes too much time and effort to navigate to and interact (when possible) with desired content. Swiss channels need homepages with bigger and better bookmarks to each others content via taglines and clickable images. The extensive video library of the news media channel should be tapped into by corresponding content on the strategic channels via clickable pictures, not the text hyperlinks. The Swissinfo multimedia page organizes videos by themes, which correspond to country elements measured by country ranking indexes: environment, infrastructure, society, culture, sports, and science. This library could be enlarged to include strategic aims like innovation and education, which the Presence Switzerland gateway could then link to on the pages where it covers these topics (Swissinfo video, 2011). Multimedia pressrooms, which include government press conferences and other key policy presentations, should be established on the information gateway and government channels to engage foreign opinion leaders and other key targets identified in the Swiss communication strategy abroad. 5. Assign a social media Ringmaster. In the December Harvard Business Review, Patrick Spenner identifies the need for a new type of social media marketing executive who must unite the various actors and their activities of communicating and fulfilling a brand promise like a circus ringmaster, expertly choreographing talent in real time to engage the audience in a seamless, interactive experience. (Spenner,

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 2010). He identifies three capabilities needed for a social media marketing executive: integrative thinking, ability to augment lean resources with people from other channels, and ability to work within short time frames by using social technologies to rapidly identify and maximize new opportunities or neutralize threats. 6. Establish a chief executive high-speed response capability. In terms of responding to attacks on brands, countries are no different to companies in that they are slow-moving and consensus-driven. Swiss leadership has demonstrated this limitation in the past, when its policies regarding banking transparency, the Polanski affair, the minaret ban, or the Libyan hostage crisis, were communicated through press releases seen by a few hundred people online. If other world leaders use of social media to promote or defend their policies is any indication, a social media suite for the Swiss presidential office that included a blog and Facebook and Twitter accounts could have helped defuse the negative criticism before it spread through social media channels and affected perceptions of the Swiss country brand enough to lower its ranking in two of the major country brand indexes.

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 1 Interview Questions Interview 1: Stephane Garelli 1. Could you explain in more details how the WCY is organized? 2. How does it compare to the other major competitiveness index, the GCI by WEF? What about the NBI and CBI? Are they more/less reliable indicators of the strength of the Swiss brand? 3. What are the major strengths and weaknesses your yearbook has found in the Swiss country brand? 4. Do you think social media can influence perception of these strengths and weaknesses? How? 5. Why is there a variance in the different country brand rankings? 6. Can country rankings be affected by negative media events from year to year? 7. What do you think was/were the most damaging media events in the past few years? Why? 8. With its dependency on quality exports, do you think Switzerland has to be concerned about counterfeiting? 9. The US Census Bureau neutralized John McCains tweets against its Superbowl ad to 7 million followers with a speedy response from the Directors social media platforms. Could this strategy be applied to Switzerlands extraordinary situations? Why/why not? 10. Any idea if Switzerland will maintain its position in your ranking this year? Interview 2 Nicolas Bideau 1. What has been your experience since you joined Presence Switzerland? 2. What are your current priorities in terms of the Communication strategy abroad? 3. What Internet media analysis tools are you using and what do you monitor? 4. Do you think non-Presence Switzerland government-sponsored websites like swissinfo and admin.ch protect and promote the Swiss country brand? How/how not? 5. What do you think of the current websites managed by Presence Switzerland? 6. What do you think of the presidents Facebook page? Should she branch out to other social media platforms, like Twitter or blogging? Why/why not?

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA 7. Do you think the fraudulent use of the identity of the Swiss president on Twitter and a blog is a problem? 8. Would Switzerlands online image promotion benefit from having a presidency that lasted more than one year? Is it feasible? Why/why not? If so, how? 9. Are there plans to put Presence Switzerland on other social media platforms? Which ones and why? Interview 3 Willy Hold 1. Could you explain what your main responsibilities were as Chief of Protocol? 2. Your responsibilities included some of the instruments that are referenced in the communication strategy for promoting Switzerland abroad, such as major events and hosting foreign delegations. Could you explain in more detail how these work? 3. How did the president manage her dual responsibilities? 4. How is the PR for the office of the president organized today? 5. What are the responsibilities of PRS versus the Press Office of the president and/or the FDFA in terms of social media? 6. Would Switzerlands online image promotion benefit from having a presidency that lasted more than one year? Is it feasible? If no, why not? If yes, how? 7. Do you think the fraudulent use of the identity of the Swiss president on Twitter and a blog is a problem? 8. Swiss embassies like the one in Washington D.C. use social media to promote the Swiss image. Do you think this could be useful in other Swiss priority countries? Interview 4 Micheline Calmy-Rey 1. What do you think of your Facebook page as a tool for promoting the presidency? Who is your intended audience? 2. A recent Swissinfo article said that 25 world leaders used their Twitter accounts, or Twiplomacy, at the Davos conference which you attended. What do you think about using it for your communications? 3. Would you consider having a blog? If not, why? 4. What do you think of other world leaders, like President Obama or Norways Prime Minister, maintaining blogs? 5. What is your view on the role of Presence Switzerland in supporting the communication strategy using social media?

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 2a - Swiss channel alignment

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 2b Swiss channel depth

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 3a Swedish channel alignment

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 3b Swedish channel depth

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 4a Swiss country leader

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA Appendix 4b Australian country leader

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HOW SWITZERLAND CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Appendix 5 Swiss versus Swedish/Australian social media channels

Brand areas/ Country Info gateway CH SE Tourism CH SE Investment CH SE Government CH SE News Media CH SE

Main sites (Image strategy site) Swissworld.org Sweden.se (si.se) myswitzerland.com visitSweden.se osec.ch Investsweden.se

Gateway Home Facebook integration pg links no yes no yes no yes n/a yes no yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes

Twitter/ Languages no en en,fr,de en en, de 4 countries

YouTube Blogs/ languages no yes yes yes yes yes no 12/en no en de,fr,it en

ch.ch/epa.admin.ch (image_switzerland) Sweden.gov.se Swissinfo.ch Thelocal.se,de,ch

no yes no yes

no yes yes yes

yes yes yes yes

en,fr,de foreign sec. en + 8 en

no no yes yes

no foreign sec. 6/6 16/en

Leadership home website(s) Admin.ch, eda.admin. pm.gov.au

Gateway All sites integration linked

Facebook

Twitter/ Languages

Press office

Blog/ languages

no yes

no yes

yes yes

no en

no yes

no en

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