|
The State Chancellery and the Latvian Institute announce a competition to create a Facebook page for Latvia. Teams of 1-3 persons may compete in the competition, registering by noon on September 9. The assignment is to create a unique and engaging Facebook page in English to communicate internationally about Latvia. The page’s target audience is Facebook users who are interested in or could be interested in Latvia. The aim is to help Latvia communicate more effectively with the rest of the world using social media, informing and engaging people across the globe.
The teams must offer a concept for the page and a creative strategy, as well as the layout and design of the landing page. Participants must also devise a plan for maintaining the page over the long term and propose a team for maintaining the page. The team with the best project will be awarded special prizes. Works submitted in the competition will be evaluated by a professional jury, as well as by the public-at-large, who will have the chance to participate in online voting.
The content of Latvia’s Facebook page must include information about Latvia’s achievements, unique events in social and political life, innovative companies, and events in the fields of culture and sports, as well as other engaging information for an international audience.
The complete rules and regulations for the competition, as well as information about special prizes, will be announced on Friday, September 9, at 17:00 at the Latvian Institute, Pils iela 21 in Riga. At the event, the organizers will answer questions from participants and offer creative inspiration.
By September 19, teams must create the landing page for Latvia’s official Facebook page by registering a page at Facebook.com (without a username). Teams must also develop a conceptual strategy for the page. This concept must be written on two A4 pages and must include the following elements:
• Information to be included on the page.
• Structure of the page and possible sections or subsections.
• Style of content and the frequency of updated information.
• Plan for administering the content.
• A team for developing, updating, and maintaining content over the long term.
• Activity plan for live broadcasts and other special events (one-year development plan).
• Possible videos, photos, and applications to be integrated on the page.
• Plan and campaigns for popularizing the page.
Teams must submit their projects by September 19, sending them to the Latvian Institute at the following email address: rihards.kalnins@li.lv. Submissions will be evaluated by a special jury, made up of representatives from the public relations, advertising, and design industries; representatives from non-governmental organizations; correspondents from foreign news agencies; social media specialists; bloggers; as well as representatives from the Latvian Institute and the State Chancellery. The jury’s assessment will comprise 50% of the final score, and the results of the online voting will make up the other 50%.
The jury will evaluate the submissions and announce their assessment about the best project on September 26. The State Chancellery and Latvian Institute will sign an agreement with the competition winners about subsequent collaboration.
The Latvian Institute and State Chancellery had previously organized an open discussion with Latvia’s social media experts, bloggers, designers, IT specialists, and advertising experts about how best to create an official Facebook page for Latvia. The discussion, on August 19, generated a good deal of debate in Latvian social media circles about possible solutions for developing an official Facebook page.
One of the main problems encountered during the discussion was the impossibility to register the username “Latvia” for a Facebook page. At the present time, Facebook does not offer countries the option to create official pages, though individuals, businesses, organizations, and other entities do have the option to create their own pages.
In response to this obstacle, Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has written a letter to Facebook, requesting permission to register the username Latvia as well as presenting a proposal for future collaboration between Latvia and Facebook in developing a country page option. Dombrovskis proposed that Latvia and Facebook could work together to develop a set of guidelines for registering, designing, administering, and maintaining official country pages on Facebook, spreading the idea to other nations around the world. If this country page option were introduced, other nations could register their official Facebook pages, providing the request comes from an official representative of the respective nation, and communicate more effectively with an international audience.
Information prepared by:
Rihards Kalniņš
Latvian Institute
Public relations specialist
Rihards.kalnins@li.lv
+37129592321
Zanda Šadre
Cabinet of Ministers
Press secretary
+37129120742
Zanda.Sadre@mk.gov.lv
|
