Canton of St. Gallen

Raouf Selmi is multimedia producer at the Canton of St. Gallen and responsible for social media content. He explains how the team brings structure to their editorial plan and communication with users thanks to Swat.io.

About the Canton of St. Gallen

The Canton of St. Gallen was established in 1803. It is located on the eastern border of Switzerland and is a member of the International Lake Constance Conference. The administration is divided into seven departments and the Cantonal Chancellery, which means that the canton communicates on a broad range of topics on social media. In order to coordinate the various channels in the best way possible and maintain an overview, the team uses Swat.io.

The Goal? To Keep Citizens Informed and Build a Sense of Closeness

The majority of the population engages with social media, which is why the Canton of St. Gallen uses it to stay in contact with the public. However, the messages must be conveyed in a way that will be accepted by the citizens. Administrative information and topics from all departments are posted by the team on social media in order to keep the general public and media representatives informed. This enables content to be distributed more widely than using traditional methods. At the same time, it establishes a sense of closeness with the public.

But a social media post isn’t the same as a press release. The challenge is to present the topics to users without making them too complicated. Topics are often defined by the federal government or the canton, and are then broken down as simply as possible by the social media team in St. Gallen. Video content is a useful tool for doing this.

85

channels managed

+17.35%

more fans and followers across all channels
in the first year of using Swat.io

39

posts on average across all channels

Wanted: Organizational Support Across all Channels

The canton deals with various topics as part of its social media strategy. Facebook is the main channel, and everyday topics and posts are worded in a way that is very accessible to the general public. The goal is to distribute content as widely as possible. Twitter is used to address media representatives and policy-makers and to circulate important information. The platform is used intensively around parliament days, which take place five times a year. YouTube plays an important role as a distribution platform, as the team places a lot of emphasis on video as part of their content mix. Another channel they rely on is Google My Business. The Canton of St. Gallen manages around 130 locations that regularly receive reviews and criticism. It’s important for the team to react to these posts – but without a tool, it would be almost impossible to keep on top of this.

In an editorial meeting once a week, content is agreed on for the social media content plan. This content is produced in-house – even the videos are designed, filmed and edited by the team themselves. A content calendar is needed to keep everything in order.

Found: Clear Editorial Planning and Teamwork in a Single Tool

The starting point for their search for a tool was editorial planning. Without a tool, maintaining an overview of medium- and long-term content planning and mutual coordination was difficult. The team was also looking for a way to coordinate the various communication channels better.

With Swat.io, all communications are displayed clearly in a central calendar and posted directly on social media. Fixed approval processes and the allocation of tasks enables structured workflows. Queries from the community and reviews on Google My Business are dealt with centrally in the ticket inbox. This increases interaction while also ensuring a clear overview.

What the Canton of St. Gallen Has Been Able to Avoid Thanks to Swat.io

Chaotic Google My Business locations

Unanswered reviews

Complicated internal coordination processes

Why the Team at the Canton of St. Gallen Chose Swat.io

What impact has Swat.io had since you started using it?

“Our team invests a lot of resources in producing high-quality content. Swat.io helps us to plan this content as a team in a simple calendar. This allows us to maintain an overview of all channels and makes it easier to assign tasks internally. Our ever-increasing interaction rates prove that we have chosen an effective strategy.”

What made you choose Swat.io?

“The deciding factor for us was that we could keep an eye on and fully manage all our channels in the tool. Following a trial phase, we are delighted that we will be using it in the long term. We wouldn’t want to work without Swat.io again.”