The project Curators of Sweden was launched in December 2011 by Visit Sweden and the Swedish Institute. The purpose was to boost interest in Sweden around the world, and show – in practice – that Sweden is an open and democratic country. Every week a new person living in Sweden or a Swede living abroad has been in charge of @sweden, tweeting about whatever they have wanted – their everyday life, hobbies and opinions – and answering questions about Sweden.
Started a ‘rotation curation’ trend
The project has been praised globally for its openness and the courage to hand over the control of an official channel to private individuals. It has been described as the first example of ‘rotation curation’ in social media– i.e. that different people get to curate a channel for a certain period of time – an idea that has since been picked up by many others.
– Curators of Sweden was a groundbreaking initiative when it was launched. One of the most rewarding things about the project has been everyone who has been inspired by the concept – we’ve had a lot of emails and phone calls from organisations and countries that have wanted to do something similar, says Anna Rudels, head of the Department of Digitalisation and Communication at the Swedish Institute.
The project has won more awards than most Swedish communications initiatives. The around 30 awards include the international Grand Prix and two Silver Lions in Cannes Lions, gold at the Clio Awards, as well as the Swedish major awards Guldägg and Silverägg – to mention but a few.
One of many official Sweden channels
The Swedish Institute is tasked with increasing awareness of Sweden and building trust in Sweden around the world. Curators of Sweden has been a part of this mission.
Anna Rudels continues:
– Since Curators of Sweden started, the internet and social media have developed at an unprecedented rate. The same goes for our own digital channels. Today we manage more than twenty official Sweden accounts on social media, where we communicate with more than two million followers in English, Russian, Arabic and Chinese on a daily basis.
– Every project has an end, and now – after nearly seven years – it is time for us to move on. We will develop new formats where we can reach more people in more countries than before.
– We are truly grateful to all the curators who have been a part of this project over the years – they have been the heart and soul of Curators of Sweden, and without them this unique project wouldn’t have been possible, Anna Rudels says.
Curators of Sweden runs to the end of the month, and the last curator will post a final tweet on @sweden on 30 September 2018.
At the end of the project, 356 curators will have tweeted around 200,000 tweets on @sweden. All curators and their tweets are presented on curatorsofsweden.com.