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Spreading the news...

By Amy Sparks and SunShine BenBelkacem

Are you following the IFVP news and programs coursing through your social media streams and on our website? We’ve got a great team of star volunteers to thank for it.  They might not be showing their face on our platforms but they are making IFVP very visible by sharing information with visual practitioners across the globe. Here’s a look behind the curtain at the volunteers running the social media channels for IFVP.

from Nova Scotia, Canada
 
Julie Gieseke, is the longest serving member on our Social Media Committee. We’re lucky to have her now sharing posting duties with Leonardo Tapia Jofre on Instagram after covering Twitter diligently for years. She hails from San Francisco, CA, USA.
 
Leonardo Tapia Jofré from Madrid, Spain, joined the team in January and is sharing Instagram duties with Julie Gieseke. 
 
Lin Wilson, from Middleton, Wisconson, USA does double duty - posting on Facebook and serving as general editor for all the posts generated by the Conference Committee and Board members
 
Marko Hamel, from Germany, does our LinkedIn Group and Company page which has recently been restarted, Find him at Visual Selling GbR.  
 
Paula Fagerberg, at Visual Acuity in Atlanta, Georgia USA, started the MeWe account as an alternative to Facebook. We are currently welcoming new volunteer managers for this account to serve with Paula. 
 
Phil Guo (also serving on the IFVP Board), recently started the WeChat channel in China. We’re pretty excited to see this growing!
 
Rachel Stevens, is our volunteer UI/UX designer volunteer from Denver, Colorado, USA. Rachel has been helping with improvements to our website. 
 
Amy Sparks, Social Media Committee Chair (previously managing the Facebook page for IFVP) lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. 
 
Thanks to their hard work, we’ve seen our social media presence grow and thrive. As of July, 2020, our members on the various platforms are: 2390 on Facebook, 2336 on Instagram , 120 on MeWe, 2117 on LinkedIn, 3165 on Twitter and 645 on our newest channel -WeChat China.
 
In the first six months of 2020, our volunteers put up around 220 and have seen our followers grow between 3 and 17% depending on platform. In these challenging times, it’s comforting  and hopeful to see our volunteer team still willing to forge ahead devoting time and energy to support IFVP members. 
 
A bit of history:
The Social Media Committee was started by Bec Savic and Heather Martinez during the New York IFVP Conference in 2013. Since then, many IFVP members have stepped up to post on behalf of IFVP.  Thanks to all (and to Heather Martinez for creating this list in 2018). 
 
Bek Savic – Co-founder of the Social Media Committee and SMC Committee Chair, Heather Martinez – Co-founder of the Social Media Committee and InstagramBecca Wilson – PinterestManuela Bernard – FlickrSam Bradd – FacebookFernando Perez – FacebookRacquel Benmergui – TwitterLaurens Bonnema – TwitterJulie Gieseke- TwitterNancy White- LinkedIn, Pinterest, Gerri Dickson – LinkedIn, Ben Crothers – Instagram and Social Media Chair, Teresa Dannemiller – Facebook, Jose Anzizar – LinkedIn, Tara Shanks – Facebook, Tamsen Mitchell – LinkedIn, Rachel Thompson – Instagram, Hannah Sanford – Facebook, Latrinia Elliot – Facebook, Kailin Huang – Facebook. If we missed anyone, let us know!
 
If you’re interested in supporting the IFVP community of visual practitioners by working on the social media committee, you are welcome to contact Amy at amy@avisualspark.com. Read more about it here.