Swedish Armed Forces goes social

I do remember when The Swedish Armed Forces signed up for an account at Mynewsdesk. I think that was the 23:rd of September 2006. And I was somewhere between shock and euphoria, because there was a huge client for us by then, and not any customer, that was the government authority Swedish Armed Forces. And who would in their wildest dreams have expected that they would purchase a public relations tool that was based on engagement and relationships rather than simply conducted mailings, already by then? Not me! But they did. And I do respect them for that!

Today, a few years later, they’ve obviously been taken another maybe even more important step towards relationship; they have launched a communication strategy that should aim to create relationships between different stakeholders and that will be a key competitive advantage for the Swedish Armed Forces as an employer. Traditional one-way communication is no longer an effective method for an organization in transition and evolution.

One of the initiatives is their today launched blog portal, where Erik Lagersten, Communications Director, is writing the post “From information to relationship”. He says:

“Few areas have changed so fundamentally that information or communications in recent years. Technological evolution and the people’s ability to “establish connections” has foiled many ingrained behaviors. Conventional authority communications in particular. These days it’s the target groups needs and wants that matters, not the communicators. Once there’s too big a gap between the target group and the communicator, there’ll be a gap of credibility as well, that can be difficult to bridge. We’re also aware of that the most trustworthy stories comes from our employees. Whether the content is perceived as positive or negative. The more voices the stronger organization.”

This might be a small step for the Swedish Armed Forces – but I tell you – it’s a huge step for the PR industry that most of you guys (readers) are a part of.

I’m really looking forward to see many government authorities as followers.

PS. Check out their video about their communication strategy as well. It’s in Swedish though. DS.

And why not read the Bisonblog about the same topic as well…