Back from a day’s recuperation from colds, I thought the talk about social media is a soft topic for the second week of 2010. Certainly, it’s a favorite subject for us since we have introduced Google Maps, Twitter, and LinkedIn to PlanMill systems already in 2009!
Google Maps and LinkedIn goes to PlanMill CRM, Project, PSA & ERP.
However, it’s high time that Finnish companies, big and small alike take this issue–use of social media in business– seriously. Finland, a Nordic country considered as a pioneer in the global ICT market, however reveals a few surprises.
First, big companies in Finland don’t care about blogging — possibly the reasons can range from lack of resources or motivation.
My Twitter contact Miia Äkkinen from the Helsinki School of Economics: Information Systems gave me a good lead today. With her co-researchers Professor Virpi Tuunainen and Professor Matti Rossi, they explored the use of social media in Finnish and Swedish companies, evaluated the social media use in companies using Facebook business accounts (Facebook fan pages) and Twitter microblogging accounts.
Miia recenly wrote in her blog:
“Taloussanomat just reported that large Finnish companies don’t use blogs in their business. In Sweden large companies use blogs a lot but in Finland only Nokia blogs. The blogging culture of 132 large Nordic companies was studied by consulting office Pohjoisranta and Burson-Marsteller. And only 11 blogs were found: 1 in Finland (Nokia), 1 in Norway and 9 in Sweden (e.g. ABB, Volvo, Ericsson, Electrolux, Skanska).”
What can this imply? If the one of the main points of Finnish innovation is internationalization — ergo, we have to meet the international markets halfway!
Also recently asked by Antti Vilpponen from Arctic StartUp “Why Is Finland The Mongolia Of Internet Marketing?“
“There are a lot of reasons, but one of the key reasons in my opinion is that we fail to see the potential in harnessing the online marketing channels for the benefit of our businesses,” Antti explained. “It’s 2010 and only now are the largest companies (in Finland) waking up to the potential of e-mail marketing.”
(Btw, you might find a few valid objections in blog comments against the parallelism between Mongolia and remoteness, of which Antti justified that “physically and psychologically (Mongolia is) very distant to us Finns and thus we don’t consider it close to us in any manner.”)
Everyone at Arctic Index seems to be equally passionate about the subject. One of the reading list I had recently included
“Use Your Users: Driving Online Media in 2010 by Nick Mueller” , which explores the thread of thought for online media entrepreneurs and content creators.
I can’t wait for the results of Miia’s research project; meanwhile you can view HSE’s abstract and slides to give us a glimpse of things to come: “Social Media in Business Use – Extent of use in Finland and Sweden”.
Meanwhile, if not for business, one can also use social media for sports! Try and register with HeiaHeia, a Finnish startup offering a simplified training log for sharing your activities with friends in a simple and fun way! Read more from “Moozement Rebrands Itself And Becomes HeiaHeia, One Of The First ‘Nokia Funded’ Startups To Emerge“
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