Railways to hire a team of 17 private PR professionals to formulating strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms

A team of private public relations professionals will soon drive railways' publicity campaign both at Union ministry in national capital as well as in each of its zones, with national transporter for first time issuing a set of guidelines to hire such private ncies to man its publicity.

Sources said currently, around 70 officers - including one chief public relations officer (PRO) in each of its 18 zones -- were engd in disseminating information to media about railways and running its social media handles, along with several senior PROs and public relation inspectors.

w, a team of 17 private PR professionals will be hired for each zone to assist m.

"We alrey have private ncies working with us in zones, who help us with our publicity work. This is t new. What we have done w is that we have tried to standardise process," a senior Railway Board official said.

According to guidelines, a team of 17 trained professionals, including a team leer, a social media manr, content analysts, content writers, video editors and ors -- will be engd in each zone. Each of se teams, sources said will be hired at a cost of around Rs.2 crore.

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model document for selection of such an ncy issued by railways states that se teams will work in collaboration with chief public relations officers (CPROs) and handle social media activities, aggregate grievances received by national transporter through such forums, analyse media cover, assist in garing and dissemination of information to media and also prepare reports to be submitted monthly and quarterly to senior officials.

teams will also be tasked with creating a dashboard in ir respective zones, where all news articles and television clips concerning zone will be available online. sources said this alone would be accomplished at a cost of around Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh per team.

teams will be formulating strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and or social media platforms. y will also identify issues, mes and "social media influencers who are active in media", sources said.                                                 

"Most of our officials engd in publicity-related activities are t trained in this. y are railway officers. In this digital , where communication is a significant aspect of governance, we need trained professionals. However, our CPROs will provide all content and material for information disseminated by se teams," Railway Board official said.