The Office of Marketing Communications is celebrating the upcoming Winter Olympics with an Elizabethtown-themed social media photo challenge.

The challenge is titled “E-lympic Games” and will begin Feb. 8, the day after the Opening Ceremony. Director of Integrated Communications Donna Talarico-Beerman said, “Almost two years ago, I wrote a chapter for a book called ‘Social Works’ – a bunch of successful higher education social media case studies – that included information about a summer Olympic-themed Facebook photo contest between a number of Ivy League schools. As this year’s Winter Games approached, I couldn’t help but think back to that idea and wonder if we could scale that back and put an Etown spin on it.”

Students, alumni, faculty and staff can choose between 10 Olympic-themed photo challenges. Participants can interpret the daily challenges in a creative or literal way. “Photo challenges have been a huge success,” Talarico-Beerman said. “Students and even some alumni just love sharing their pictures. We thought we’d do something different this time, in honor of the Winter Olympics. So, with some play-on-words and Olympic-themed events, we’re going for it.”

Participants are encouraged to post their entry for each day to Twitter or Instagram, and should remember to tag their photo with  #EtownElympics and should indicate the day and event number in the post.

Participants are also encouraged to interact with other participants by searching #EtownElympics to see what others have posted. “Kelly Moore is our social media intern,” Talarico-Beerman said. “She brainstormed the event ideas and helped secure the prizes, and it was great to have a student voice in all of this.”

The Office of Marketing Communications will serve as the E-lympic committee. They will view the submissions and comments from the previous day’s event and will vote on the top three photos. There will be daily winners announced on Instagram and on the Social Life blog.

The prizes for gold medal photo challenge winners include JayBucks as well as prizes from Dining Services, the Office of Alumni Relations and new Etown Hashtag tees. The silver and bronze medal winners will earn bragging rights. At the end of the Winter Olympics, the E-lympic committee will choose one All-Star “athlete” to win an Etown blanket, donated by the College Store.

Contact the College’s Office of Marketing Communications for additional information regarding the “E-lympic Games” social media challenge.