Hi all,

As Lily mentioned we started the WLM Instagram account a little over a month ago and so far the growth has been steady. I have posted all photos that are posted on the winners page. I'm looking forward to building a strong base for our next year's competition and I have specific plans that I will share with you in the future. But until then please make sure to follow our account if you are on Instagram and also spread the word to your local audience. Please encourage people to tag us and mention us in their Instagram posts. That way we will get a lot of visibility. Based on my experience with WLM Iran account, I'm hopeful we can get a lot of engagement from WLM Instagram account. Many local chapters are active on Instagram and I believe I have found more than 40 Wikipedia/Wikimedia related accounts. My hope is that next year many more local teams use Instagram so we can build a strong network of accounts that can help promote each other. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out if you have ideas to improve our presence on social media and in particular, Instagram.

Also I will be posting all winning photos one by one on the Instagram account. Please feel free to share the posts on your own social media channels.

Thanks,

Mohammad

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 9:19 PM, Lily <lilyofthewest.wikimedia@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

Here in the international team we've been quite busy in the past month with the international jury process, getting all the stats for the 2017 contest, and also the preparation for the announcement of the international results and all the work that needs to be done before and after the announcement. Here is an update and what to expect in the coming couple of weeks.

==Announcing the international results==
Things are moving according to plans at the international jury level. We expect the jury to finish their work in the next couple of days and we will spend the rest of our time between then and the announcement to do final checks and balances on the photos, prepare the jury report, ... We are aiming to announce the international results in the week of December 11, and most probably towards the end of that week. We will let you know once the date is finalized.

==Media coverage==
Announcing the international results means that we should work a bit harder to see if we can get some media attention to Wiki Loves Monuments, this is especially a nice opportunity to bring attention to the work of the local organizers and the photographers involved. We will be finalizing our media and social media plans in the coming week. This means preparing blog post(s) and also working with WMF to see if they can help us with pitching the blog post for more media coverage. Local organizers may hear from us, too, as has been the tradition. :)

==Social media activity==
Our Twitter account will be active as usual during the announcement time. We have not finalized the plan for announcing the results on Twitter, but we may try to do the count down there, similar to the past couple of years.

On the social media front, we also were convinced by User:M.hekmat, cc-ed, that we really need an Instagram account. ;) So here we are: https://www.instagram.com/wikilovesmonuments/ Mohammad is in fact in charge of our Instagram activities. The plan is to build the account and create a strong follower base for the account in the coming months and have the account ready for more major activities in 2018. M.hekmat will share some of his plans for the account with all of you once the excitement of the next few weeks is behind us. In the mean time, if you have an Instagram account and you're up for following the international account, please do it. :)

Questions and comments are welcome.

Best,
Lily

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User: LilyOfTheWest