The Nation's Selfie

The selfie has quickly become a symbol of self-expression around the world. Our phones aid us in capturing the ultimate selfie. Social media platforms allow us to instantly share them, not with only our friends and peers but with the whole world.

According to my friends and social media experts, I think it’s safe to say that understanding how to take a good selfie nowadays is considered a professional skill these days. If they’re used effectively, brands can even incorporate selfies as part of an influencer marketing.

For anyone to reach a wider global audience on the social network platform, you need to monitor and select the trending hashtags carefully and engage with your loyal and potential followers.

Like influencers and by significant every human being, country, city, university, private sector, and so on are very protective about their image, but in the last ten years, more and more countries started to adopt new methods and KPIs to manage their reputations.

Most governments now hire public relations firms and apply brand management theory that is always followed by private sector corporate communications departments. Is this the right approach?

New metrics attempt to quantify the strength of national brands, and the field has seen a real explosion of literature on which branding techniques work and which don’t.

However, the classic mistakes that both countries and public relation firms fall into thinking that looking good coupled with catchy slogans and attractive images can help cover the lack of policies and proper systems.

Meanwhile, branding efforts have diverged out well beyond simple efforts at attracting tourism. Countries recently hire firms to help them launch sophisticated branding campaigns aimed at luring foreign investment, facilitating trade, improving private-sector competitiveness, or even securing geopolitical influence.

In an era of open communication and social media, nations have become far more cognizant of the value of their brand as an asset. Understanding valuation helps countries better understand the investments they make in their image.

What extent does a political and attractive slogan help attract foreign investment? Increase geopolitical influence?

The significant change, on the behavioral aspects of managing a nation’s image. Officials from government, nonprofits, and the business community collaborate to make sure the messages a country is putting out represent what they view as “the fundamental common purpose” of their country. So not only catchy but inclusive message.

Nation branding became a new booming industry, and as such, indexes, indicators, literature, and conferences are emerging to help promote and also encourage more cities and nations to initiate a similar process.

Some nations' campaigns seek to improve the competitiveness of a nation’s exports by linking them to positive preconceptions of the country. Private sector companies contribute either positively or negatively to any national brand. BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes drive with German technology efficiency and reliability. McDonald’s and Starbucks are among the most visible U.S. diplomats, Nokia is Finland’s envoy to the world.

A new form of influence came to play; for example, the Iceland tourism industry is booming and expanding its share of GDP at the expense of the traditionally dominant fishing sector. Thanks to the hit television show, Game of Thrones, which films most of its winter scenes in Iceland, the country has seen a record 1.8 million foreign visitors in 2016, up 40% from 2015. The first two months of 2017 saw a 59% increase in the same period of 2016. The increase in visitors brings significant financial benefits to the nation. Tourists spent US$212 million in 2016, using credit and debit cards alone, and as the number of visitors is forecast to increase, so will the injection of money.

New Zealand tourism numbers started to grow following the lord of the rings series.

Other countries that aim to increase and attract investments launch “investment branding.” promoting their infrastructure, favorable tax structures, connectivity or other incentives to lure foreign investment. Others also publicize their financial markets to increase their standing as an economic hub.

Other countries focus on different areas. Tourism promotion has traditionally dominated nation-branding efforts among developing countries.

Any campaign cannot yield results in the very short term. Politicians and policymakers don’t have the patience, and politically they don’t have the time. Thus they aim to have reputational non-effective campaigns. Therefore they do not achieve the desired result and, most of the time, perceived by the public as wasted funds.

Any nation branding exercise needs close collaboration among all politicians, private sector, and educational institutions. For example, the tourism board saying how wonderful the country looks and how welcoming the people are. You have the investment-promotion agency saying almost the opposite, that it’s super modern and full of cars and roads and railways. And you have the cultural institute telling everybody how beautiful the film industry is. And you have the government occasionally doing public diplomacy, and perhaps sometimes attacking its neighbors. They’re all giving off completely different messages about the country.”

In Conclusion, increased competitiveness create a more creative approach and the need to launch self-diagnosis initiative to help identify the strength, weakness, and possibilities that need to be exploited to the maximum for the campaign to reach its potential. Moreover, the government needs to consult and engage the private sector, universities, and art sector in designing and launching such campaigns for it to reach its desired outcome. 

Nations need to re-invent themselves while being true to their identity, culture, and moral ground.

#Nation #Branding #Selfie #Brandind_a_Nation #Government #