The Long Story

Imagine a living, real time social magazine experience with quality, variety, exclusivity, stories, people, places, events and secrets making it tick. That’s what I think WhyWellington could become. With your help, we can make it happen.

Hello. If you've been directed to this link, it's because you're an awesome photographer, I really like your work on Instagram and I want to thank you for including the #WhyWellington hashtag with your amazing photos.

WhyWellington started on Twitter to answer a question I got asked a lot. I was also curious about other Wellingtonian's reasons for enjoying this wonderful little city so I encouraged the use of the #WhyWellington hashtag.

I began the WhyWellington Instagram account to post my personal #WhyWellington moments. Pretty soon, others, like yourself, started using the hashtag on Instagram too.

As of now (Early November), both the Twitter and Instagram accounts are just 4 months old. The traction the #WhyWellington hashtag has gained in that time is quite phenomenal. So much so, on a sunny Welly day, I find it hard to keep up with regrams and retweets which, ironically, makes my social life a lot less social.

Having started WhyWellington and encouraged people to use the #WhyWellington hashtag, I obviously feel a responsibility to maintain the accounts and give those using the hashtag the thanks and respect they deserve. Until now, when anyone used the #WhyWellington hashtag, they were pretty much guaranteed a retweet or regram.

The thing is, the Wellington Twitter and Instaverse is pretty small. There’s a lot of good things about that. One is that a little account like WhyWellington can become known pretty quickly. I continue to be amazed at the number of new followers daily. A drawback of a small community is that there’s a pretty big crossover between account followers. So sometimes, content is duplicated many times in an individual’s feed.

There was never a goal or objective for WhyWellington. I started the Twitter account on a whim. As it has grown and evolved (did you know there’s a Youtube account also?), it is clear that WhyWellington’s content and contributors have not only unlocked Wellingtonians’ love and passion for their chosen home, it has also showcased the pride and sense of place and community that makes Wellington Wellington! I wonder though, can that level of participation be maintained or will Twitter and Instagram users get bored and move on?

So, I have 3 problems to solve:

1.       Reduce WhyWellington account management time

2.       Reduce the amount of content duplication contributed by WhyWellington accounts.

3.       Reduce the likelihood of WhyWellington ‘fatigue’.

After some serious thinking, the solution I’ve come up with may seem counterintuitive but it’s pretty simple; reduce the frequency of people using the #WhyWellington hashtag.

Stick with me here, I know it’s a BIG decision but I hope you will support me and help to continue WhyWellington’s success.

Here’s what happens when I regram.

• Your photo is watermarked with your Instagram @username
• Your original comment accompanies the regram
• Your clickable Instagram @username is added to the comments.
• Your Twitter @username (if known) is added to the comment.
• Your photo is posted to Twitter as a viewable image (Not as a link)

Here’s what you can do on Instagram to kick everyone's WhyWellington experience up a gear.

PHOTOS

Think about framing.  Unfortunately Instagram and Twitter have different frame aspect ratios. Instagram uses the 1:1 square. Twitter uses a 2:1 landscape rectangle. Twitter displays feed photos cropped across the middle. Unfortunately, some Instagram images composed beautifully for the square format lose their meaning or context by Twitter’s cropping. The skill is to compose Instagram photos that will still display OK on Twitter.

Think about composition. If you’re not familiar with the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Rule google it.

Think about photos in terms of stories. Is it a photo of a thing or a place, or is it a photo telling one of Wellington’s stories.

Think about photos in terms of answering the question; “Why Wellington?”

COMMENTS

Remember, regrammed photos get posted to Twitter which has a 140 character limit. That doesn’t leave much room between your @username credit and the #WhyWellington hashtag. Just like photos, comments get cropped so the most important stuff needs to be up front. Think about captions as adding to, not duplicating the story the photo is telling, and keep it brief.

HASHTAGGING

This is the toughest part of the changes I need to make, and where I think I’ll lose a lot of contibutors. Everyone has different reasons for posting on Instagram. We all enjoy the kick we get out of likes, comments and regrams. It’s tempting to cram comments with hashtags. Moving forward, for a more focussed curated experience for WhyWellington followers, I’m going to reduce regrams of photos hashtagged like this:

#whywellington #sharemewlg #wellingtonnz #WellyNZ #wellywood #wellington_nz #instagramwgtn #coolestlittlecapital #newzealand #NZ #kiwipics #capturenz #loves_new_zealand #ig_newzealand #instagood #au_nz_hotshotz

What this means is, you have to decide, “Is this a #WhyWellington photo?”

If, by now, you’re thinking, “Screw you!” that's cool, I get it. I'm not big on rules either. I respect your decision.

But if you’ve read this far and you’re still thinking, “Im in!”, then I’m pretty sure you’re just the kind of WhyWellingtonian I’m looking for and I look forward to showcasing your work to a wider audience. I have some interesting plans ahead for WhyWellington. I hope you'll be a part of it.

I want to be totally open and honest about this transition so please get in touch if you want to know more.

Thanks for your time

Ben Woodward

022 070 4261

[email protected]