El video analiza, en boca de algunos de los autores del libro “La diplomacia española ante el reto digital” el pasado, el presente y el futuro de la diplomacia digital en nuestro país.  Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, UE y Cooperación  (Publicado el 12 abr. 2016)

As part of its commitment to modernise communications and adapt its services to the demands of modern-day society, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation implemented a Digital Diplomacy Plan in 2015, which is now fully operational.

The Foreign Action Strategy 2015-2018 has included this new reality in Section 8.3, stating that “digital diplomacy offers great influence opportunities, allows direct, more frequent dialogue with more extensive audiences, allows opinions and suggestions to be heard and information to be received that was previously not available to those responsible for foreign policy”.

The goals of our presence on social networks and web sites are:

• Attention to Spanish residents overseas or those travelling abroad, taking advantage of social networks to reach everyone in any emergency situation or when in difficulties.
• To provide a better public explanation of our offices overseas and of the ministry regarding their daily tasks, duties and undertakings.
• To take foreign policy closer to our citizens, explaining our priorities and explaining our position on international issues.
• To promote general knowledge on Spain in other countries. To foster the economic and social progress of our country and better mutual knowledge through closer and more plural communication.

The Digital Diplomacy Plan is based on the principles of quality, credibility and relevance of the information, transparency, decentralisation and coordinated and immediate management of content.

You can check the activities of senior officials of the ministry on the web pages of the ministry and other representations overseas, together with news on current affairs affecting Spanish foreign policy. By clicking on the Citizen Services tab, you can obtain all the consular information necessary to perform certain formalities such as registrations at the Civil Registry Office, the legalisation of documents and passport renewals. The contact information and specific consular and informative content for each country are available on the web pages of the overseas diplomatic and consular missions.

The implementation of digital diplomacy on social networks has been structured around a framework of 28 sub-regional, multilateral, language-based hubs; with each of the embassies or consulates being present on at least one social network.

Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation has two Twitter accounts – one in Spanish, @MAECgob, and one in English, @SpainMFA – and is present on Facebook, Youtube and Instagram. Additionally, our embassies and consulates are present too, totalling more than 1 million followers and friends on our networks. We recommend that you subscribe to the accounts you are interested in, to become more familiar with the day-to-day diplomatic, consular, cultural and trade and economic promotion activities carried out by our representations.

Thanks to this Digital Diplomacy Plan, a Social Network Atlas of the ministry has been drawn up. This Atlas has been confirmed as the main verification instrument for our accounts, since it allows the web pages and social network accounts of the representations overseas to be identified.

The 28 hubs or focal points are Spanish embassies chosen on the basis of geographic and language balance criteria and of major horizontal topics. These hubs are required to make a greater communication and coordination effort with the offices in their region, with the aim of making the information available in our country more dynamic to third parties.

Apart from the contents of traditional communication that are also published on social networks and web pages, digital diplomacy has also allowed campaigns as #ViajaSeguroMAEC and #RecomendacionesErasmus to be implemented. Furthermore, many explanatory files and videos have been launched on issues of Spain’s international relations and foreign policy, for example, on our presence on the Security Council for the two-year period 2018-2021; on consular affairs, and on applying to vote abroad in elections; as well as on other matters such as job opportunities in international organisations.

We invite you to visit our blogs – a closer and more personal vision – from which our diplomats explain their work and share their experiences on the ground.

Finally, a registry of complaints and suggestions has been implemented on the website. Thanks to this system, the initiatives submitted by users to improve the quality of the services provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation are processed and answered, as well as the claims regarding same.