Annika Lidne talks Social Media and Online Communications

I wanted to go Swedish with this week’s Online Communications interview and I immediately thought of Annika Lidne, CEO of Disruptive Media.

Annika is one of the most well-known people in the social media industry in Stockholm / Sweden.

I first came across her when I attended one of the Disruptive Media events she organised last year.

As well as being a very knowledgeable and popular figure inside the industry, advising large companies and organisations about social media and digital business, she’s also a very passionate and eloquent speaker about social media and online communication.

Each month Annika also organises the Stockholm Social Media Club that meets for a Friday lunch and networking get-together.

The next Disruptive Media conference is on Social Cash and takes place on March 25 in Stockholm. I hope to see you there!

Jon: One of the courses you offer through Disruptive Media is “How to Create a Successful Blog”. What do you think makes a successful business blog ? And is there anything that Swedish business bloggers are doing differently that people can learn from? Examples?

Annika: Successful blogs are like any other successful content; interesting, relevant and entertaining. To be successful in a business setting, you also have to be useful, very up-to-date and on-topic. The problems many corporate bloggers face are over-selling and over-promotion. Instead of thinking what is interesting for your readers, you want to promote what is interesting for your company.

To make your company blog rise above the level of every other company blog you have to move from just writing about your company, to writing about the topic of your niche i.e. report news and user cases from the area your company works in (Well, unless you are Google. Then you can get away with being very company-centric!) .

I can’t really think of any advice gathered from Swedish business blogs, per se. It’s more the reverse: Swedish business bloggers can learn much from international business blogs on how to select a niche and promote your blog.

Jon: A lot of Swedish businesses are increasingly active on Twitter and Facebook. Some post in English, others Swedish. How would you describe how we’re using these channels in Sweden? or Stockholm? Any trends you’re seeing? Is this a possible route for Swedish businesses to make international connections ? And how do they best achieve this?

Annika: Right now, ordinary Swedes haven’t discovered Twitter. They are on Facebook. But, if you want to connect with journalists, politicians and other people involved in the media, Twitter is a good service. More and more companies and organisations are on Twitter so I think we will see an increased adaption from the general public, especially with the live Twingly channels from the Swedish semi-finals to the European Song Contest and the upcoming Swedish general election. Twitter is getting a lot of media attention right now.

I think that Twitter can be a great tool for Swedish businesses to make international contacts, especially for start-ups in the fields of IT, Web, and Media. If you’re selling industry production, however, I think it’s harder because the audience isn’t there in the same way. But to make worthwhile contacts, you have to start by reaching out through Twitter, reading that person’s or company’s blog, starting a dialogue and then perhaps meet up at a conference.

Jon: How can social media improve productivity for businesses ? Do you have any Swedish examples to illustrate this?

Annika: Internal wikis are a great way to capture knowledge and avoid doing the same job over and over. It’s surprising how few companies that have efficient tools for capturing knowledge. A good example is the insurance company Europeiska, that sells travel insurance, where all their claim administrators submit information about claims from different countries into a wiki and their colleagues can find it by a simple search the next time they have a similar case.

Jon: Swedish and Norwegian businesses that I talk to often worry what online communication tools they should start with: Facebook, a blog, twitter or all at once? How do you approach this question?

Annika: I start by analyzing their problems. Why do they want to be there, and what do they want to achieve? What target group do they want to reach and where are they? Without having a specific problem and a goal, it is difficult later to measure if your activity have been successful. At my company, we usually do a thorough analysis and then a strategy for out clients which makes it easy to implement and later measure results.

Jon: In Sweden we have extremely fast internet connections, WiFi access points all over the place, and a really good mobile network. We’re one of the most “online” countries in the world. What can we as communications consultants do to help businesses understand how things are changing and how they can use online communications to genuinely benefit their business?

Annika: Sweden might be one of the most online countries in the world, but I think that businesses in general here are lagging behind in their use of online services and online media. Again, I prefer with either starting with a concrete problem or a new vision of the company. Businesses are hard-pressed for resources and if a consultant can show that a company either can save money by using online communications and services or increase the profit, the decision can be quite easy to make. To often though, communication consultants only talk about soft values like increased recognition or a better dialogue with customers, and that is hard to quantify and thus hard to get managers to sign off on.

I also advise clients to benchmark against the best businesses in the world to see what they are doing, as well as getting a good consultant with a broad knowledge from communication into web services and IT to act as a guide. Beware if your advisor starts to suggest big investments and expensive systems: that’s not necessary today.

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