The Gateway to Mo i Rana
Project Manager Iselin Breirem at Rana Utvikling is working to make the website moirana.com the best digital gateway to getting to know Mo i Rana. The website is created with the aim of attracting newcomers and providing them with relevant and enticing information about Mo i Rana.
–We want moirana.com to be the one portal for all information about the city - available jobs, what it's like to live here, recreational activities, how to find housing, how to move to Norway. In short, everything an Italian or a Japanese person needs to know about living here and what they need to find out from their home country, says Iselin Breirem.
Frog in Spanish
And as with most names, moirana.com was not chosen randomly. It was essential to include both Mo and Rana when creating such a website:
–If a German, Italian, or Japanese person sitting in their home country saw an interesting job advertisement in Rana and Googled Rana, they would find images of frogs or Indian actors, among other things. By the way, Rana means 'frog' in Spanish, Breirem reveals.
Clearly, this is not very relevant or accurate for Norwegians or foreigners who are looking for information about Mo i Rana. Breirem is now passionate about using the full name Mo i Rana consistently when promoting our city and municipality.
–Both when referring to the place and in job advertisements, I encourage everyone to consistently use Mo i Rana. When we only use Rana or Mo, it becomes confusing for people who are trying to find more information about us, she continues.
Work-life balance
The website moirana.com was launched in October 2022 with a wealth of relevant content about where to work and live, and what to do in Mo i Rana. Today, moirana.com appears in fourth place when you Google Mo i Rana, behind Rana Kommune and Wikipedia, among others - a placement that Breirem finds acceptable.
–And we know that there are more readers from Oslo than from Mo i Rana, and that we have readers in the USA, Japan, and Germany, she says.
The digital revitalization of Mo i Rana has already yielded results, but the site is still under development. When we meet Breirem, she has just returned home from a conference in Finland called Nordic Place Branding. She brings with her many concrete ideas to make moirana.com even better and is eager to put those ideas into action as soon as possible.
–For instance, our website uses the phrase 'Mo i Rana - a place with opportunities.' But we need to specify what opportunities we are referring to. For example, 'opportunity for employment, opportunity for housing,' and so on regarding recreational activities, for instance, she explains.
The site is available in both Norwegian and English versions but intentionally does not mirror each other. Marketing a great place to live, with information about jobs and leisure, is virtually the same in both Norwegian and English.
–But there is some information that Norwegians don't need. We already have knowledge about our welfare systems, the need for a tax card, what, for example, the Tax Administration and the right of access to the countryside mean, says Breirem.
Something they have discovered more and more since the site was launched is that the need to market the possibility of work-life balance is even more important for international newcomers than for Norwegians. Work-life balance is about balancing personal life and work in a good way.
–The fact that you are moving to a free and democratic country, that we have easy access to nature and fresh air, and that it is perfectly acceptable to leave work to pick up your child from daycare despite having a work deadline. The latter is something that wouldn't be as natural to do in countries like the USA and England, and many people are pleasantly surprised by that, she says.
Job vacancies
All available jobs posted in Mo i Rana through arbeidsplassen.no automatically appear on moirana.com. To achieve the same for English job advertisements, they must include the hashtag #workinmoirana. Breirem encourages the use of this hashtag in English job postings and for all companies to refer to the moirana.com website in their advertisements.
–We need a workforce in all sectors, both Norwegians and foreigners. Many people also come with partners and children, so we need as many people as possible to contribute in spreading the full range of opportunities in Mo i Rana - job opportunities for partners, schools, daycare, and recreational activities," she says.
Rental housing and event calendars are also part of moirana.com.
–The event calendar is currently the most visited page. Anyone can post events there, and many have contributed, but I encourage even more people to post events and activities on moirana.com, says Breirem.
Note: Facebook and finn.no are not used.
Regarding available housing, most residents of Rana have used platforms like finn.no and Facebook up until now. Breirem has an important piece of information, especially about Facebook:
–Very few people in Europe and the world still use Facebook. Norway is an exception. Consequently, potential newcomers struggle to find available housing in Mo i Rana. So I strongly encourage everyone with vacant housing to also use moirana.com.
Mono
