While we keep a close eye on what Swiss universities and institutes of research are up to in social media, it is much harder to keep track of what’s going on in general in social media in Switzerland.
Putting myths aside (Swiss users don’t engage, they don’t comment, they don’t share), we will attempt to answer the above question with the help of various individuals who have their fingers on the pulse of the Swiss market. Through their work and experience they will showcase what Swiss users are responding to in social media, the challenges and lessons learned from social media campaigns, and more.
LinkedIn’s pilot program for universities. LinkedIn is revamping their offerings to students and alumni and has partnered up with a group of academic institutions to improve their services. By the way, have you heard about their alumni product?
University of Geneva on iTunes U. The university of Geneva is joining a handful of other Swiss academic institutions on iTunes U and has already uploaded a number of podcasts . Congratulations!
Seven deadly sins of Facebook brand pages. Are you using the right picture format? Have you set up a vanity URL? And are you already using the Facebook timeline to mark important milestones in your university’s history?
News, blog posts, and articles that caught our eye this week:
University of Fribourg on Social Media. University of Fribourg shares guidelines, naming convention, best practices, and more with its community (in French & German). Congrats!
LinkedIn unlinked from Twitter. Twitter begins to enforce stricter guidelines for use of its API and deprives LinkedIn of user tweets to enrich its newsfeed. The SF Chronicle reports that your tweets will still be visible in your Facebook timeline.
Facebook Finally Lets Page Administrators Schedule Posts, Have Different Roles. A much needed functionality that allows page administrators to let others contribute content. Another welcomed addition, is the ability to schedule content on Facebook, previously only available through 3rd party applications (Crowdbooster, Hootsuite).
@Sweden welcomes @Netherlanders to Twitter. You might have read about Sweden’s initiative, through which regular citizens handle Sweden’s official Twitter account for a week. The latest country to join the trend is The Netherlands.
This interview is part of a series of posts highlighting social media trailblazers in Switzerland. Our last post in this series, featured Katja Wenk, Web and Social Media Officer at the University of St. Gallen. Today, we meet Yan Luong, Social Media Manager at Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS).
As often social media friendship stories go, I met Yan through Twitter in early 2012. Shortly after his name started popping up everywhere. We followed the same people on Twitter, had some LinkedIn connections in common, and seemed to share a bad habit of tweeting at odd hours.
Many tweets later, Yan and I met in Lausanne in May 2012. Having a coffee with somebody you’ve met on social media for the first time might sound like an awkward situation. In my experience, it is the absolute opposite. After all, you know what this person cares about (Twitter), laughs at (Facebook & Instagram), and what he/she does for a living (LinkedIn). Over a few coffees, Yan and I compared notes about our jobs, new tools we are intrigued by, who’s who in the world of social media in Switzerland, and what makes social media users in Switzerland tick.
Owner of a good sense of humor and easy disposition, Yan agreed to an improptu video interview in which he talks about his work at RTS, how he manages 55 Facebook pages, and the Swiss’ obsession with the iPhone.
