In the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 report released yesterday by the World Economic Forum, Switzerland is ranked first, followed by Singapore. In third place is Sweden, down one spot from last year. The Swedish economy is innovation driven (ranked #2 on innovation and sophistication factors) and on factors such as "Availability of latest technologies" Sweden is ranked as the global leader.
So it is hardly surprising that Swedes are quick to adopt social media and it is starting to affect every aspect of our daily lives. More Swedes use social media on a typical day than traditional online media (35% vs 28% in 2010). And businesses and organizations follow consumers into the the digital space. There are for example now more than 100 Swedish corporate Twitter accounts with more than 1,000 followers. The most popular brand is H&M, which currently has more than 460,000 followers.
Did you also know that the average time per week spent on social media by women in Stockholm is 8 hours and 15 minutes? Or that 73% of pupils would accept a friend request on Facebook from a teacher, but that only 20% of teachers would accept an invitation from a student?
These and many more statistics can be found in this presentation that I have compiled, called "55 fascinating facts about social media in Sweden".