Not-Sport

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SHORT SNACK #3 | Welsh Forests & Dog Walkings

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I'm spending Christmas with the girlfriend this year. The town she grew up in is a lovely little place in Mid-Wales surrounded by incredible areas of wide open land, forests, lakes and dams...a stark contrast to where I grew up in London! It's also a mecca for some incredible drone shots just waiting to happen.

While the weather has been awful, I took the Phantom up to the local forest while walking her dogs with a few friends crossing fingers we'd get lucky. Winds gusted, and rain fell...but as we entered an open clearing the weather calmed and I took my chance.

 
 

I'd love to have been up for longer - but as we continued along the walk, the wind picked up and rain didn't let up. Huge shame...but for Wales in the depth of winter I'm very happy to get the flight I did! A great end to my flying for 2016 and a positive step into 2017, where I'm looking to do a lot more flights like this!

I did however take my A7sII with me - which is much less weather reliant, and took some photos of friends & dogs while they enjoyed the wet and windy conditions. I enjoy shooting sport - but it's always great to get out into the wilds & test myself with something a little different.

View More SHORT SNACKS Here

All images taken on a Sony A7sII with 85mm & edited in Lightroom

When Should You Post An Instagram Story?

At #SMWiBristol, we had the privilege to get an Instagram workshop from Alison from Avocado Social. She focused mostly on the new Stories element - which I was surprised too see how underused it was amongst the audience. 

 
 

The whole thing was great, with a lot of interesting tidbits - but one thing really stood out. Midway through the panel, Alison said;

"You should try and post at least one Instagram Story per day"

I kinda paused at this. It seemed against everything that's 🔑 to social. Relevancy, and not posting content for the sake on content...then Alison continued;

"Because then you'll be the first thing your audience see's when they log into Instagram"
 
 

My mind was blown. It was so simple, so obvious...but I'd never thought about it before.

In a feed where it's ever harder to get organic reach thanks to the algorithm, Instagram had built in their own way around the algorithm with stories - boosting those who used it right to the top (literally). 

Now, Alison wasn't saying to take random shots *just* to have a story per day. I imagine missing a day here or there where there really isn't anything worth taking photos won't be a problem - & she stressed you do still need to keep your posting relevant! But it's certainly something to think about, and an interesting point in the sports world, where Stories is kept usually for GameDay. Are #smsports managers missing a trick not planning a week's worth of behind the scenes posts specifically for Stories to compliment the high quality photos for the regular feed?

 
 

Reach out to Alison at @AvocadoSocial on Twitter, or via the Avocado Social website

Find me @TheRealRhodri on Twitter and Instagram

Find me on email at Rhodri@ContentIsKing.co