News from the public procurement system of a country that apparently has money to burn:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=3980812 So now we’re going to spend public money on Facebook likes too? I’d like to remind Andrei Grigoryevich Bystritsky, head of the federal state institution Russian State Radio Company "Voice of Russia," that his outfit already costs the budget a huge amount of money, and Facebook likes come from good content that people like and share—without any money at all. That’s what a social network is for. Presumably, you have ALREADY been given money to produce that good content.
Wikipedia says that Andrei Grigoryevich Bystritsky is the author of the trendy book "Youth Subcultures", so he ought to know such basic things. Why should we pay 7 million rubles (about 7,000,000 RUB) to get 3,500 likes for the Portuguese-language page?
Interestingly, for example, the Arabic site already has 2,863 followers. The Spanish one has 4,100 (the target is almost met). Russian 1 already has 5,700. English has 6,400. French already has 2,586. In other words, these target figures can literally be achieved with one good piece of content. So where is the 7 million going? The exact cost of "Voice of Russia" is not disclosed, but VGTRK (the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company), which it is part of, received 19 billion rubles for next year. VGTRK can’t promote "Voice of Russia"’s Facebook pages on its own online platforms, including its foreign-language ones? Though perhaps the explanation is simply that youth-subculture expert Andrei Grigoryevich Bystritsky and his colleagues are quite savvy when it comes to unearned income. The auction documents hint at this rather plainly. For example, they assume that the winner of the auction will develop the advertising strategy in 2 (two) days.
The requirements for the strategy clearly rule out that kind of speed:
Targeting-schmargeting, ad copy, photographs, studying target audiences in different countries. All that in two days? In short, RosPil proposes: To Andrei Grigoryevich Bystritsky. Remember conscience—and caution. Spend less time thinking about the high life. Stop messing around. Leave the 7 million rubles alone. Everything needed to promote Facebook pages can (and should) be done by the staff of the relevant language services free of charge. Give each language desk a bonus of 30,000 rubles for hitting the required targets, and they’ll do it. To VGTRK chief Dobrodeyev. In between briefings at the Kremlin and thoughts about how best to flatter Putin and Medvedev, take an interest in what is happening in the company entrusted to you, and make sure money is not being siphoned off and squandered on such obvious nonsense. To both of these gentlemen. Remember that in this country, every other district hospital has a leaking ceiling.