Swiss cantons discover Facebook

The social media presence of the Swiss cantons. Aargau, Zurich and Basel-Stadt are the most active on Facebook, Twitter and Co. While Swiss companies such as Swiss, Migros and Zweifel have over 100,000 Facebook fans, the figures for cantonal administrations are limited. For example, 4,536 Facebook users have "Liked" the official website of the canton of Aargau, followed by Basel-Stadt with 1,581 and Glarus with 1,560 fans in second and third place.Lucerne residents are very active on FacebookThe most active Facebook citizens are recorded in the canton of Lucerne, where the ratio between the number of users interacting with updates on the canton's page and the total number of fans is the highest.Social media presence of the Swiss cantonsThese figures are available on the platform of "Social Switzerland" (www.socialswitzerland.ch), a collaboration of the HWZ University of Applied Sciences Zurich and the advertising agency webguerillas AG. In this current stocktaking of the social media presence of the Swiss cantons and capitals, the official presences of the administrations on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are compared and evaluated.Cantons discover FacebookSince the launch of the platform in April of this year, the "Facebook Confederation" has grown from 9 to 13 cantons. On Twitter, 16 Swiss cantons are already present, while on YouTube there are only 8.Continuing education for administrative employeesThe new focus course "Social Media for Cities and Municipalities" starts at the HWZ on February 28, 2014. This 10-day course is aimed at employees from city and municipal administrations who want to gain solid application skills in the social media world in a compact and practice-oriented form. Further info: www.fh-hwz.ch/fokuskurs.