From the endless lists that place Philly as a top choice for everything from travel to food, to the upcoming papal visit, to the recent announcement that the Democratic National Convention will take place here in 2016, there is an appropriate amount of pride beaming from many city residents.
That pride has manifested itself on twitter, as the hashtag #WhyILovePhilly has been trending recently. The trend has been used by a local blogger for the project Philly Love Notes, which collects posts submitted to the site of people sharing their favorite things about the city. The blog is run by Emma Fried-Cassorla, and in a profile for CBS 3, she explained why she started the blog:
“Philly Love Notes came during a transitional period in my life when I was questioning my job, where I was living, how I was living, etc. I realized that I needed to know more about the city and make new friends, so I decided to ask people to tell me what they loved about the city, and to meet me in the place they had chosen.”
Along with the love notes, Fried-Cassorla launches a special campaign on Valentine's Day with #WhyILovePhilly on twitter and instagram. This is the second year she's pushed the campaign on the holiday, and according to her blog, last year was a success:
The mission is simple: To show Philly some love. Last year, thousands of organizations and individuals participated in the #whyilovephilly Twitter campaign (4000 tweets, 2000+ participants, 9 Million impressions). This year, the #whyilovephilly website (www.whyilovephilly.com) is live, and will serve as the hub for Instagram and Twitter feeds. Please join us again this year.
How you can participate: On Valentines Day, tweet about why you love philly, using #whyilovephilly. Ask your followers to do the same. Retweet some of your favorite responses. It’s that easy.
As noted in the blog post, there is a website that tracks every response on twitter to #WhyILovePhilly. The hashtag has already prompted plenty of responses on the social media site. Here are some of the best tweets to make you feel good about being a Philadelphian: