Visit Philly Launches Guest Instagram & Pinterest Programs

PHILADELPHIA, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning this spring, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) is handing over the reins of its popular Instagram and Pinterest accounts to residents charged with showing off their favorite Philly locations and made-in-Philly items. The project calls on locals—influential photographers, prolific social media users and experts in their fields—to promote new sides of Philadelphia to Visit Philly's more than 340,000 fans and followers:

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130416/PH94939 )

1. Visit Philly Guest Instagram Program
After a successful Guest Instagram pilot program with local photographer Dave Maialetti, GPTMC is expanding the program to spotlight 14 visitor-ready areas surrounding Center City that are part of the new Philadelphia Neighborhoods campaign. Beginning in mid-April, GPTMC will hand over the reins of the @VisitPhilly Instagram account to professional photographers and/or seasoned Instagram users to document each of the neighborhoods featured in the campaign.

Upcoming Guest Instagrammers include:

•  Conrad Benner of StreetsDept.com: Also known as @streetsdept, Benner boasts nearly 4,000 followers on Instagram and covered Northern Liberties on @VisitPhilly from
  April 13-14.
• Photographer Neal Santos: @nealsantos has more than 18,000 followers on Instagram and will cover West Philadelphia's Spruce Hill from April 16-18 and Cedar Park from May 7-9.
• Designer Mike Smith: @mikesmith enjoys nearly 3,000 followers on Instagram and will photograph Fairmount from May 18-19.

The Guest Instagram images found at instagram.com/visitphilly will help populate the brand-new visitphilly.com/neighborhoods section on the region's official visitor website. The section includes user-generated content that will feed into the site via Instagram and Foursquare, enabling people to see what other visitors are doing and experiencing in the city's neighborhoods.

2. Visit Philly Guest Pinterest Program
Starting April 15, Jeanine Hays, the creative director and founder of AphroChic interior design company and blog, will post design-centric Philadelphia pins on the Visit Philly Pinterest account. (Home decor and design continue to be the most popular topics on the three-year-old social site.) Hays is a prolific and talented Pinterest user with nearly 9,000 followers that GPTMC hopes to convert to Visit Philly followers as a result of this promotion.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside^® a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region's vitality.

For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit visitphilly.com or uwishunu.com, where you can build itineraries; search event calendars; see photos and videos; view interactive maps; sign up for newsletters; listen to HearPhilly, an online radio station about what to see and do in the region; book hotel reservations and more. Or, call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Historic Philadelphia, at
(800) 537-7676.

SOURCE Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation