The European Commission uses social media in different departments and to varying degrees. Its conference interpretation department, with some 600 staff interpreters and 3000 freelances, is about to lose 50% of key personnel to retirement and needs to drive young people to studying languages and into interpretation schools in order to hope to be able to keep the EU institutions working in 24 or more languages in the future.
Thanks to targeted media campaigns, with special attention to the social media where their prime audience "lives", the Directorate General for Interpretation has built a solid community of linguists around the world and is well on the way to solving the problem. Audience and outcome metrics are the key to tracking the impact of the country-specific actions and to fine-tuning the typology of postings that range from job and training course information to wide-ranging links to relevant third-party content and university events - and also a bit of fluffy fun.
2. What does DG Interpretation do?
• Provides quality interpretation for meetings in all
23 EU languages
• Organises conferences for Commission DGs and
others
• Manages the Commission's meeting rooms and
their technical installations
Interpretation
5. Staff
• Approx. 850 in all – 600 staff interpreters, 250
admin staff
• Largest interpreting service in the world
• In 2011 :
11,000 meetings
150,000 interpreter days
About 60 meetings a day
700-800 interpreters a day
Interpretation
6. Why are we in social media?
• - succession-issues in a number of languages
• - insufficient awareness of interpreting careers
• - help partner universities
• - more graduates able to pass EU tests
8
Interpretation
8. Primary
objective
objective
• to help partner
universities get
more students of
better quality to
apply to
interpretation
courses.
11
8
Interpretation
9. The audiences
• secondary school
students
• university
students (also
graduates)
• relatives
• authorities
12
9
Interpretation
11. The messages
• language study is
good for you
• there are jobs in
languages
• there are jobs in
Brussels
• interpreting is a
great career
13
Interpretation
12. • traditional and new
media
• social media
• Exhibitions
• speaking tours /
school visits
• government
relations
• lobbying
14
12
Interpretation
19. What about the
social part?
• - we talk to our
community mainly
through
• Facebook
• But also:
• - YouTube
• - website mailbox
• - (not) Twitter
25
19
Interpretation
21. Living the brand ...
• Attentive and involved
• Approachable and easy-going
• Jargon-free and clear replies
• Always helpful and ready to offer advice
• Facebook page your best friend online
• Real people from your side engage in
conversations
34
Interpretation
22. Rules of engagement
• Create value for the friends
• Involve people
• Always tell the truth
• Respond promptly and helpfully
• Get involved yourself
35
Interpretation
25. Page operates on 3 levels:
• as a promotion tool for the interpreting services
and the profession
• as a provider of curated light entertainment and
language news (primarily to build audience
figures)
• as a model for direct communication with the
citizens whom we help solve their career – and
sometimes existential, problems through dialogue
– lending solid support to the Commission’s
image and brand
36
Interpretation
48. Impact on key universities in 2011
• 50% increase or maintenance of high level of
applications achieved in 2010
• Quality of candidates up
59
Interpretation
49. ... It’s really about the community
building
60
Interpretation