The Use of Social Media in Statistics Finland Presentation at the SSSU Study Visit to Finland and Estonia 21 – 24 September 2015 Petteri Baer, Courtesy to Mervi Ukkonen

Why is Social Media so important today? － A new and popular way to increase the efficiency of dissemination of information － Promoting the use of statistical information and improving statistical literacy － Building contacts with new users and user groups of statistics － Good interactivity, interesting feedback received － Providing information about statistical services as part of Statistics Finland’s communication palette － Presenting Statistics Finland as a modern employer Petteri Baer2

Facebook facebook.com/Tilastotohtorifacebook.com/Tilastotohtori － The Facebook-service – ”Tilastotohtori” / ”The Doctor of Statistics” –The service commenced in April 2013 － At the start, the followers were mainly staff members of Statistics Finland. Today the biggest category of followers are people from universities, libraries and different sort of information professionals － The visual outlook has been improved － The number of fans is presently The target for the end of 2015 is fans － Also the statistical service site ”Findicator” has its own Facebook site, created in March That site has presently followers Petteri Baer3

Twitter twitter.com/Tilastokeskus twitter.com/Tilastokeskus － The Twitter account was opened in July 2013 in the Finnish and English language. The Swedish Twitter account was opened in December 2013 － The service Findicator also has a Twitter account, but only in Finnish – Twitter-tili.Twitter-tili － All publications of Statistics Finland are automatically transmitted also to the Twitter account of Statistics Finland. To the Findicator’s Twitter account they are transmitted manually － As of May 2015 also edited postings have been published on the Twitter account, making use of hashtags － In autumn 2015 we will encourage our experts to tweet information materials on Statistics Finland’s Twitter account － Our Twitter account in Finnish has presently followers. The target is to have followers by the end of this year － Our Twitter account in English has presently 761 followers, the account in the Swedish language has only 13 followers － The Findicator’s Twitter account has presently 244 followers Petteri Baer4

LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/statistics-finland linkedin.com/company/statistics-finland － The LinkedIn site of Statistics Finland was opened in September 2013 － The goal is to improve professional networking by and of the staff members of Statistics Finland － Participation in different sorts of professional networks around themes related to statistics － The site has presently followers. The target is to have followers by the end of this year Petteri Baer5

Slideshare － Statistics Finland’s Slideshare account was opened in May 2014 － Presentations in events, organized by Statistics Finland are copied into Slideshare; Also presentations on statistical topics staff members may present outside the premises of Statistics Finland － By now 105 presentations have been published. Out of them 96 are open for anyone. The number of watching and/or downloading is by now － Also password-protected publishing for customized groups are possible to be posted Petteri Baer6

Other channels of Social Media used by Statistics Finland YouTube － Instructions on how to use PX-Web － All kinds of publishing and presentation materials can be published － There is a plan also to publish some videos related to data collection, how to fill in questionnaires, why enterprises and persons are ”burdened” with questionnaires, why data for the production of statistical information is produced T&T’s blog － Much visibility in the media. Individuals distribute the most interesting articles in FB, Twitter and LinkedIn － Presently 66 articles published by 18 authors Petteri Baer7

Instagram － The Instagram account was opened at the end of August 2015, so far no graphs or pictures have been published － The goal is to use Instagram in support of improving the imago of Statistics Finland as an employer and organization, report about events, promote storytelling about statistical phenomena － Provide visual materials when participating in business fairs － Examples of Instagram accounts of other organizations – – － If Statistics Finland doesn’t have an account of its own, it will be other users who will tell, how SF will be perceived, #tilastokeskus – Petteri Baer8

What can an individual staff member do? － Read the instructions from Statistics Finland’s intranet media/Sivut/default.aspx － Create an own account in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn － Create and participate in networks and ask other staff members or professional colleagues to join in into LinkedIn － Assist in spreading and distibuting posts and tweets around statistical topics Petteri Baer9

Planning the close future － Taking Instagram into use in September 2015 － Training on tweeting in September 2015 － Encouraging specialists to make use of their own Twitter accounts making use － Retweeting on the account of Statistics Finland by professionals － Increasing graphic presentations and pictures in Twitter － Make use of the software Matchit in questionnaires － Marketing campaign about the Doctor of Statistics in September- October (in Finnish only) Petteri Baer10

Summing up － In the era of continuous budget cuts, which so many of us unfortunately encounter, active participation in social media, statistical training and increased marketing can and will –Inspire support and advocacy activities in support of the importance of statistics － Social media can assist in –Accumulating ideas for and –Accumulating visibility of statistics Petteri Baer11

Remember: Only used statistics are useful statistics! Petteri Baer