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 ’Swiss’ and ‘quality’ have always been synonymous. Switzerland’s economy depends on it – from its banks to its watches to its picture-perfect tourism and top-rated system of governance. But since 2008, Switzerland’s reputation as one of the world’s most admired and competitive countries has been jeopardized by sustained attacks in online media on its banking secrecy practices and referenda seen as limiting the rights of foreign residents. Even Switzerland’s reputation as the world’s leading democracy has been questioned.

To help counter such media attacks, Switzerland needs an integrated, best practices use of Swiss social media channels to protect and strengthen its country brand image. My Master’s thesis, How Switzerland Can Use Social Media to Protect and Promote its Country Brand (below), examines how well Switzerland’s communication strategy abroad is currently supported by its social media compared to best practices and a benchmark country. It also suggests a possible correlation between best practices use of social media and position gains or losses in the major country ranking indexes.

As the Swiss government uses the results of country brand ranking surveys to identify the strengths and weaknesses on which it bases its Communication Strategy Abroad, my research focused on qualitative elements used to rank countries, such as perception of a country’s culture and people, by Anholt’s Nation Branding Index (NBI) and IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY). An interview with Stephane Garelli, Director of the WCY, indicated a correlation between drops in certain elements of Switzerland’s image abroad and intense negative online media attention.

Interviews were also conducted with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey about using social media to promote her agenda, and with Nicolas Bideau, Head of Presence Switzerland, about plans for using social media to support the government’s Communication Strategy Abroad.

Six major Swiss social media channels, which correlate with the NBI Hegaxon and the Swiss communication strategy, were identified: country brand image, information gateway, tourism, governance, investment, and news media. These were evaluated for their integration and depth as well as their ability to engage their target audiences. Swiss social media was then compared to that of Sweden, which was selected as a benchmark for its equivalence to Switzerland in competitiveness and for following social media best practices. Finally, Swiss and Australian head-of state social media were compared.

Switzerland, unlike Sweden, is not following social media best practices. Even though the investment and news media channels have social media depth, they are not integrated with the other main strategic channels. Presence Switzerland, of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), is mandated to fulfill Switzerland’s communication strategy. But it doesn’t use the power of collaborative social media channels to help lead positive and neutralize negative perceptions of Switzerland’s actions. And the Swiss presidency only makes limited use of one social media channel, compared to a three-channel best-practices use by Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

The outcome of this research is a list of six recommendations for how Swiss social media channels could be better integrated and extended to more effectively promote and protect Switzerland’s country brand from attacks that may have led to its loss of ranking in two of the major 2011 country brand indexes.

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