Organizers of the 2011 World Youth Day (WYD) in Madrid are using many means, including social networking sites like Facebook, to draw participants to the event. Some 200,000 are following news of the youth day in 20 languages through Facebook. More than one million have visited the event’s official page on the Internet. Through these means, young people are able to stay updated on novelties of the youth day and give their opinions on related topics. The latest languages incorporated on the Facebook page are Romanian and Hungarian.
Cristina del Campo, community manager of the 2011 WYD, explained that “the volunteers are the ones who have suggested opening the page in their language, committing themselves to administer the page, translating the texts we send them and managing the day to day changes. In this way,” she added, “WYD Madrid ’11 reaches young people in all corners of the world.”
Most of the interventions and questions are related to registration or participation in WYD as volunteers. Suggestions are also given to questions asked by the organizers. Many users have expressed joy at the prospect of attending the event.
There have also been competitions that have drawn a lot of attention, such as suggestions for the choice of the best phrases of the Pope’s Message written for that event. Users selected their favorite quotation and those whose choices received the greatest approval from other users were awarded two front row tickets in the Cuatro Vientos airfield for the prayer vigil and final Mass.
MADRID, Spain, DEC. 10, 2010 (Zenit.org)