Swiss cities and social media

How do Swiss cities use social media? Online research by social media consultant Jürg Kobel provides insight.A research of Social media consultant Jürg Kobel End of January 2014 shows: Facebook is not only the most-used social network among private individuals, but also among city governments. 23 authorities of the 100 largest Swiss cities have an official Facebook page (see list in the enclosure). The ranking with the most "fans" is headed by the city of Zug. Cities such as Bern, Thun, Chur or Aarau (list not exhaustive) do not operate an official Facebook page, but there are individual departments there that try to enter into dialog with their users on Facebook.15 of the cities surveyed have ventured onto Twitter so far, with the city of St. Gallen proving the most active with over 3,300 tweets. These messages on Twitter are also followed by over 3,100 users. The city of Basel has the highest number of followers, although it shares its Twitter account with the canton of Basel-Stadt.YouTube and Google Plus12 municipalities presented themselves on the YouTube video channel. The number of Google Plus pages of 10 may be surprising, but this is due to the fact that setting up one's own YouTube channel requires a Google account, which automatically leads to a Google Plus account. A closer look at the appearances on Google Plus reveals that only the cities of St. Gallen, Lucerne and Horw post regularly.Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare and XingDuring the online search, other social networks were discovered at a few authorities. St. Gallen, Gossau and Pully show photos on Flickr, Zug square pictures on Instagram. St. Gallen runs the location-based network Foursquare and the city of Kloten publishes its job advertisements on Xing.Active and passive citiesSt. Gallen actively operates 6 social media channels. The cities of Lucerne, Zug, Köniz and Horw disseminate news on four networks. However, the number of social networks is only partly decisive for a successful social media strategy. After all, it is not enough just to create accounts. The need to communicate with citizens is not only a concern of large cities. The cities of Gossau, Pully, Horw and Amriswil are also role models for contemporary dialog.The reason for the lack of city administrations on social media is probably often resources. The city of Zurich states that the Twitter channel is only used in emergencies for resource reasons. However, inquiries about Twitter are answered. Olten does not operate a channel at all and communicates this as follows: "As far as social media is concerned, personnel resources in the area of communications do not currently allow us to professionally operate a Facebook presence for the entire city administration."OutlookSome cities have only recently become active on social media. In the future, the number will increase, because social media undoubtedly belongs in a communication concept of a city administration. The effort required to operate social media must be properly assessed. There will be additional work, especially initially, when the social media strategy and guidelines are being drawn up. However, social media should become more and more a matter of course in the public relations of a city.