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Thursday night, the intrepid Dr Bailey of TV’s ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ saved a patient using Twitter, which surgeons in real life do too.

Twitter promotion continued the next day with a Swissinfo article about Twiplomacy being used by half the G20 world leaders “to become more transparent and get their views across.” So with surgeons and world leaders from Barack Obama to Norway’s PM using Twitter to save lives and run countries, why isn’t the Swiss presidency among them?

According to the Digital Policy Council, 20% of heads of state don’t think Twitter is for the birds. Barack Obama used it to get elected and currently enjoys a 2.2% following of the US population. PM Stephen Harper tweets to 2.5% of Canada, and in Europe, the leading songbirds are 10 Downing Street, with a 2.8% following, and Spain’s Ministry of the President, with 2.4%.  But the top tweeters in terms of population percentile are HH Sheikh Al Maktoum of the UAE (7.9%) and Jordan’s Queen Rania (7.8%). Will this  high level of SM engagement help these countries better manage the current demands for government reforms throughout the Arab world? Only time will tell. But it can’t hurt Egypt’s next president if he uses twiplomacy with his youthful constituency. 

So why isn’t the Swiss federal council (cabinet) tweeting? It doesn’t help that its president changes every year. Or that the seven members have to represent Switzerland’s major parties (5) and language (3) groups, although it takes a Masters in Swiss politics to distinguish between the conservative left and liberal right. The most recent cabinet reshuffle has narrowed the left-right party spectrum, but Swiss leadership is still powered by (and mired in) consensus building. Thus, they feel more comfortable presenting their views in the carefully controlled environment of their multiple government websites. President-for-a-year Micheline Calmy-Rey recently gave her ‘state of the union’ address on her Facebook profile in French and Italian. But it only hit the news feeds of 1,930 fans, compared to 89,660 fans for Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg, who, unlike Calmy-Rey, also has his own blog.

Government leaders attract significant followings in social media with distinctive identities and transparent, interactive communication on all SM platforms. But although the Swiss made Nielsen’s top ten list last year for use of social media, their leadership is barely there.

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