This is a love letter to Finland. You see the Nordic nation of 5 million people has yet again punched well above their weight, this time in handling the coronavirus crisis perfectly. The Finns have a long track record (no pun intended) in producing world champions in Motorsport. Are world leaders in education and healthcare, tops the world’s happiness index year after year, rents out more library books and drinks more coffee per capita than anywhere else on earth.

What went right?

Simple answer: their government. For starters, the current Finnish prime minister is female, Sanna Marin, like Taiwan, Germany, Denmark and New Zealand the commonality for most of the countries that performed well in this global crisis are female leaders. Women leaders show more empathy and kindness in times like these and are less risk-averse and the stats show this.

The type of government in Finland is the Nordic model and I have always been a fan of the Nordic model because it breeds the notion of the common good. For the uninitiated, the Nordic model means social democracy, for the lower rungs of society, it feels like socialism, with free healthcare, free education and a heavily unionised workforce. There is a sense of a safety net to help you if you need it. The higher rungs of society it feels like neoliberal capitalism, free economies, ease to do business and the society is set up to reward you if you work hard enough. The drawback is higher taxes, however, in the nordic model people realise this is a social duty to help the less fortunate than themselves, therefore it breeds the concept of “we” instead of “me”.

What set the Finns apart, even from their Nordic neighbours, this instance is the use of social media as an important means of communication. Every wartime leader will testify this: the most important front is the home front. Informing the public, getting them onside with your messages is the important battle you have to win first. The Finnish Government reached out to the Finnish Social Media Influencer community. Identifying them as essential workers and letting them spread the public health messages needed for the rest of the population to follow.

In the same spirit of the propaganda films of world war two: Control the message and win the war! The public needs morale boosted, also the same public needs to come together for the common good. Reaching out the Influencer community obviously has cut through the noise. Even those who are Nano-Influencers with 5,000 followers hold sway over their audience as within those communities it feels like peers and colleagues looking out for one another. It is Social Marketing utilising Social Media for Social Good.

What Other Countries can learn from Finland?

In my country Australia, the sense of common good, in part has been restored however we have not used Social Media much the same way. Rather than make the Influencer community feel apart of the war effort, they were largely ignored. Leaving the tin foil brigade to spread misinformation about vaccines, hoax miracle cures and bullshit about 5G technology spreading the virus. The same can be said about other Anglophone countries.

Moving forward into the recovery mode, for the plan of attack for the next pandemic or even, god forbid a war. Our Government and our Allies need to look at the power of Influencer Marketing as a means of winning the homefront. To make all of the social media marketers of the day on the side and apart of the war effort.