Share anything Swedish : -En studie av CommunityOfSweden.com

Title: Share anything Swedish – a study of CommunityOfSweden.com (Share anything Swedish – en studie av CommunityOfSweden.com). Number of pages: 57 (64 including attachments). Author: Daniela Brandel. Tutor: Else Nygren.Course: Media and Communication Studies C. Period: Fall 2008. University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University. Purposes/Aims: To learn what happens when the public-private tourism organisation VisitSweden starts an online community, where anyone is free to post stories and photos about a Swedish experience, and to understand how a participatory culture can help an organisation develop relevant material and thereby reach a wider audience. Material/Method: The study is an analysis of VisitSweden's community CommunityOfSweden, its structures as well as VisitSweden's use of the information posted by the readers on the community. Hence the material consists mainly of content from the community www.communityofsweden.com and the webpage www.visitsweden.com. In addition, the study is also based on an interview with VisitSwedens communitydriver Tommy Sollén. Main results: Members of CommunityOfSweden help VisitSweden to promote Sweden. This is possible because the community posting format and the participatory culture within the community are well designed and planned by VisitSweden, even though the organisation was not completely sure about the outcome. By keeping an open and friendly yet framed space and by trusting the users, VisitSweden in conjunction with its CommunityOfSweden resource has been able both to generate more material about Sweden and present a broader picture of Sweden. Keywords: Community, Consumer, Nation branding, Marketing, Participatory culture, Producer, Suggestions, Sweden, Web 2.0