An old friend of Maritime CEO’s was bestowed the title of Swedish Shipping Profile of the Year earlier this week. Lena Göthberg, founder of the hugely popular Shipping Podcast, was commended for “contributed greatly to spreading knowledge of and increase interest in shipping”.
The panel of judges praised the adept social media expert for being “at the forefront for a more digitally based shipping debate”. She was praised for how she communicates in an innovative way via social media.
Launched in July last year, Shipping Podcast has quickly built up a strong following both from within the industry and outside maritime thanks to the diverse characters interviewed to date and the intelligent debate that tends to ensue in each episode. The podcast is about to pass the 50,000 download milestone.
On taking the award, Göthberg tells Maritime CEO: “It’s a recognition that social media or online communication is the way forward to capture the interest of people outside the maritime community.”
“I met someone recently,” Göthberg recounts, “who said that I make the maritime industry human, by showing up the people in it. I don’t know, that sounds a bit religious.”
Göthberg is adamant that shipping should be using social media more to get its message across.
“My view,” she says, “is that if we are not active in social media, then we don’t exist there either, so how on earth are the general public going to find us? We talk to each other, we shy away from social media and then we wonder why no one knows anything about us.”
