Spotted by Locals, which offers a series of blogs written by locals about 33 European cities, is seeking to deepen its social media engagement by launching a We Live It feature on each of its cities' Facebook pages.
For example, if you access the Amsterdam section on the Spotted by Locals website and click on the Facebook icon, you'll navigate to Spotted by Locals on Facebook. The navigation is a little, well, spotty, but if you select Amsterdam - We Live It under the "Likes" in the left-hand column, you'll be transferred to the Amsterdam - We Live It page.
The idea is for readers to share tips and photos etc. on Facebook and to create a social media community of sorts for each city.
It looks like the feature debuted in April and the engagement appears to be relatively modest so far.
Spotted by Locals, which distinguishes itself by having city blogs written by local folks and highlighting nontouristy venues, has been posting questions on the We Live It pages such as "Which event are you looking forward to?" and "What is your favourite ice cream shop?"
These are hardly edgy questions, especially compared with the great content on the Spotted by Locals city blogs, but We Live It is just getting rolling and maybe there's some better stuff in store.
The Amsterdam - We Live It page does get a little candid and partisan (and there's nothing wrong with that), when it comes to the competition.
On its Facebook page about Amsterdam, Spotted by Locals posted a Lonely Planet story about Amsterdam's cosiest cafes, and made sure to let Facebook fans know that "many LP writers are not locals."
In a May 13 newsletter May 13 which mentions the new We Live It feature on Facebook, Spotted by Locals states: "We started these pages to find out more about what's hot in 'our' cities -- our Spotters are very active but even they can't see everything!"
Even Spotters -- i.e. the local bloggers -- need a little help from their friends.