Here at the City, we're always on the lookout for new ways to engage with Spartanburg's residents and fans. This week, two things in that vein made it into our podcast. First, in a test run of what we hope will be many future uses to come, the recording of this podcast was live-streamed on Periscope, a video streaming app that allows users to watch events in real time. Check us out there. We're planning to use this new tool to add some great new content to our social media landscape.
The other bit of new social media engagement has to do with photos. You all take a lot of really great photos of our beautiful city. We routinely see shots on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter taken by our residents that would shame many taken by professional photographers, so we started to ask ourselves how best to encourage this amazing trend of great local photos, and how to share some of these outstanding shots with a wider audience.
Enter, the #SpartanSnaps social media cover photo extravaganza!
The rules couldn't possibly be any simpler.

Take a beautiful photo showing something distinctly Spartanburg. Maybe you frequent the Rail Trail, and the sunset looks really great that day. Maybe you're watching a fantastic performance at the Chapman Cultural Center. Maybe the way the light hit the bricks on E Main was looking really good one day. Your ideas, your inspiration, your vision of Spartanburg, that's what we want to see.
Post that photo to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter using the #SpartanSnaps tag. Please make sure your posts are public, so that we can see them.
Wait.

It really is that simple. Each week, we'll choose a new #SpartanSnaps photo to be used as the cover photo on our Facebook and Twitter accounts (with all the credit, mad props, local internet fame, etc. given to the original photographer, obviously). So start snapping those photos!
Also on this week's podcast, we give an update on some great news for one of Spartanburg's true originals, as Hub City Bookshop was named one of the South's best bookstores by Southern Living magazine, and we also rundown the latest in downtown development news.