Case Study: The Swedish Embassy in Canada
Increasing Followers and Engagement with a Tailored Social Media Strategy
The Client.
The Swedish Embassy in Canada facilitates formal communication between the Swedish and Canadian governments. Led by Ambassador Signe Burgstaller, the embassy monitors political, economic, and financial changes and provides many consular services for Swedish citizens. They are also responsible for promoting Swedish culture.
The embassy located in Ottawa, Ontario, wanted to improve its social media presence. They aimed to reach more audiences. To accomplish this task, they needed to create a social media strategy. This effort was part of a larger plan to update its overall communications strategy.
They aimed to share important messages from the Embassy of Sweden and Ambassador Signe Burgstaller. They wanted to reach Swedish nationals, Swedish Canadians, and a wider Canadian audience through social media. They were already using several social media platforms. These included Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the Ambassador’s X account, which was formerly Twitter.
They had some limited success. However, they knew they needed a comprehensive social media strategy. This strategy would help them reach specific audiences across Canada.
The Challenge.
The Embassy of Sweden faced important challenges. First, they needed to create a social media strategy that would fit into their overall communications strategy. To reach their business goals, they needed to answer specific questions about their social media communications:
How do we effectively reach and engage our social media users?
How do we identify and target the right audience segments for our diplomatic messaging?
How do we choose the right social media channels to reach the right audiences?
How do we maximize impact with limited resources while increasing the efficiency of content creation and management?
How do we create and maintain a content pipeline?
How to adapt to shifts in the traditional media landscape and effectively engage with journalists?
How to effectively battle false information while positioning the Embassy of Sweden as a trusted source?
The Scope.
To tackle these questions, the embassy hired me as a digital marketer and specifically as a social media consultant. My job was to work with the communications team. Over a few months, I helped them create a strong social media plan for the Embassy of Sweden in Canada.
My services included:
Social Media Strategy Development: I helped create a complete social media plan. This plan fits into a bigger communications strategy that matches the embassy’s communication goals.
Content Marketing Strategy, Planning, and Creation: Providing recommendations on content marketing, post creation, themes, and media formats for enhanced engagement.
Social Media Management Guidance: Offering tools and tactics for efficient content scheduling and performance tracking for social media management.
Performance Management Advice: Helping to set objectives and identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). Also ensuring they understood how to measure their results.
The Approach.
I began with an in-depth consultation by:
Meeting on Zoom for a one-hour consultation. I wanted to understand the context of their issues and deadlines. Also, understand their goals and objectives.
Reviewing the embassy’s draft communications strategy. I needed to understand how the social media strategy would fit into the larger strategy.
Conducting a full audit of their existing social media accounts, including follower counts, engagement rates, and content effectiveness.
Conducting a competitive evaluation with other similar social media accounts.
Next, I developed a tailored social media strategy which included:
Identifying Key Objectives: Collaborated on the key objectives that they could measure related to social media.
Identifying Target Audience(s): Created specific audience personas and mapped them to the appropriate social media platforms. Ex. Organizations on LinkedIn and the Press on X.
Identifying Content Themes: Working with the embassy team, we found four main messaging themes. These themes would help with their outreach and increase brand awareness.
Optimizing Social Media Content Creation: I helped them understand the best types of content to post on each platform. I also shared specific tactics and experiments to ensure better performance.
Recommending Social Media Management Tools and Processes: I suggested tools for scheduling, building content calendars, creating content, and managing social media. We will also share best practices to keep their content consistent, even with limited resources.
This process involved several Zoom meetings, emails, and in-person presentations at the Swedish Embassy and Ambassador’s Residence. I also had the chance to present to the communications teams of the Nordic embassies. These embassies included Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway. The goal was to share ideas on effective social media strategies for their channels and share best practices.
The Results.
Implementing their social media marketing strategy improved the Swedish Embassy’s social media presence and engagement. More specifically, they were able to increase:
Engagement Rate
200%
183%
13,900%
The Embassy's content became more engaging and consistent. They planned, posted more frequently, and used each channel differently. They used better visuals, hashtags, and effective audience tagging. More importantly, the embassy team now has a sustainable framework for ongoing content management and measurement.
The Feedback.
“Thank you for being so generous with sharing your knowledge and expertise with the Swedish embassy and wider Nordic group in Ottawa. Thank you so much for these past few months. We have learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed working with you and we see a big difference on our social media platforms.
We would love to keep in touch and share our results with you. We will continue to use what we’ve learned over the past few months.”
- Asa Corneliusson, Public Diplomacy Officer, Swedish Embassy
Why Embassies Need a Strategic Social Media Approach.
Embassies like all government agencies often have limited resources but significant mandates to engage with their audiences and communicate essential messages. Social media has become a key way to communicate. Now, embassies use social media to connect with their audiences.
However, embassies often do not have clear social media goals. They have many accounts on different platforms. They know who they want to reach. However, they often do not know how to measure their success.
Many different social media management tools can solve some of these issues. However, without a focused social media strategy, it can be difficult to achieve your desired communication goals.
Need a Social Media Consultant in Ottawa
Embassies like all government agencies often have limited resources but significant mandates to engage with their audiences and communicate essential messages. Social media has become a key way to communicate. Now, embassies use social media to connect with their audiences.
However, embassies often do not have clear social media goals. They have many accounts on different platforms. They know who they want to reach. However, they often do not know how to measure their success.
Many different social media management tools can solve some of these issues. However, without a focused social media strategy, it can be difficult to achieve your desired communication goals.