Commons:Wiki Loves Earth/WLE Resources Center/Social media and promotion

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR LOCAL WLE + SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

Visibility is an important part of any campaign, as it helps to attract more participants, especially newcomers, and spread awareness about the topic and your work. Here, we gathered a brief guide and some materials that can help you in promoting your local Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) contest.

• CentralNotice Banner:

It is a very good promotion tool for reaching the target audience. The international organizing team helps each local team set up a CentralNotice Banner that readers on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects will see above each page, leading to your landing page on Commons. But it is important for you to provide the translations and design before your local competition starts (and preferably not on the last day). Check out more about the banners here;

• Mass invitations:

Mass inviting participants of previous years' contest editions in your country (and/or participants of similar photo contests like Wiki Loves Monuments or Wiki Loves Africa). This can be done quickly and efficiently with the use of MassMessage tools; you can contact the international organizing team to get technical assistance with this or read this guide if you'd like to try it yourself;

• Mailing lists:

You can create a mailing list, add all the people who were/are involved and interested in the competition, and create one place for your local WLE community (be sure you have their permission to use their email address). Or use some general mailing lists that already exist (local community, global movement, etc.);

• Social media:

Most people, especially those interested in photography, use social media channels. Social media posts, including social media ads (if you have the budget for them), can be very helpful in promoting your local campaign. It is advisable to create a content plan beforehand and follow it, for example, publishing a post at least once a week or more frequently if possible. The ideas for the posts, content plan template, and some promotion materials are in the links below;

• Websites and other channels:

Apart from your main landing page, you can also have a website for your local contest, where you can publish relevant info, some posts, and articles. It can be easier for some participants to reach out for information through it. You can also create a Telegram/WhatsApp channel/group to send relevant news to your local WLE community there. Don’t forget about the Wikimedia global platforms (Diff, for example), where you can publish local relevant interesting information;

• Local media:

You can work with local media, providing them with a press release with an announcement of the contest, its final results, etc. They can create an article about your local WLE and publish it on their channels, which can benefit you with some newcomers later and spread awareness about the contest in your country; Find a press release template.

• Partners:

You can contact relevant government institutions and NGOs and ask them to help promote your contest. For example, gather email addresses of major national parks in your country and send a press release about the start of your contest to them. They might have their own social media channels, newsletters, or other means of distribution where they can promote your contest. Last but not least, the promotion method is to build partnerships and leverage your partners' audiences. Find more detailed instructions on how to build partnerships for your local WLE here.

• The general template of the WLE presentation (you can use it for your calls, events, materials, etc.);
• WLE content plan template (find there some ideas for the posts);
• Visuals for the post templates (you can see PNG files as examples and use corresponding PSD files for editing in Adobe Photoshop);
• Templates for visuals in Canva (feel free to COPY and use it);
• Promotion videos for WLE 2024 (use for your social media).

Let's make WLE visible everywhere!

If you have any more questions or need help, feel free to approach us at wle-team@wikimedia.org.ua.

If you want to add your suggestions, questions, or ideas for this instruction, please leave them here.