Imagine, for a moment, that you are in charge of your country’s official Twitter page for a week; every tweet is of your own crafting, and every follow is a follow for the country as a whole. What kinds of things would you tweet about?
To some, this sounds outlandish, with the classic “that would never happen” ringing out in unison. The thing is, it’s not that outlandish—Sweden is doing this. Right now.
It’s called Curators of Sweden, and the SparkNotes premise is that the country wants to paint a picture that shows its many sides. Seems legitimate enough.
As noted on the Curators of Sweden website, the project is “an initiative of the Swedish institute and VisitSweden, both part of NSU, the National Board for the promotion of Sweden.”
Each week, a new curator is chosen by nomination. They must be a Swedish citizen and have their own Twitter account, but those seem to be the only definite rules as of now.
While this is not necessarily a new form of national branding, as the first curator took to the country’s Twitter handle in 2011, it is just recently making noise overseas. And keeping true to its mission, it’s definitely giving people a taste of Sweden that isn’t simply IKEA mixed with mild-manneredness.
The question of whether this would fly in the United States is one that comes to mind immediately. As a country, we have very different views of what is considered typical, and we know that the Internet (Twitter especially) is a breeding ground for trolls, harassment and every kind of “ism” you can imagine.
These topics come into play in Sweden as well. Some curators are more right leaning, with Tweets aimed at their critics. Curator Margrit Richert tweeted from @sweden, “@richardmiller sissy british leftie. You’re the only ones offended this week. I’m starting to think you like it.” Others, like the current curator, may tweet about books, inspirational quotes and hobbies.
So it’s not a contained, “only-say-things-that-won’t-offend-anyone” type of arrangement that some governments might be more apt to having with their social media. In reality, this is one of the closest ways we can hear what is most important to the people of a country without putting them in a government position, although handling the official Twitter page may seem like just that.
To learn more about the project, or to read current and past curators’ tweets, you can head to www.curatorsofsweden.com.
