How WeLoveBrussels built an audience of 65,000 with a positive message
We’ve met Boro Milovic, founder of WeLoveBrussels, to chat about his mission to inspire a city.
WeLoveBrussels is an “urban communication platform connecting people with the city, sharing positive stories, images and ideas, with a goal to inspire Brussels”. A mix of micro magazine and highly engaged community, WeLoveBrussels brings together over 65,000 people across its website and highly successful social media channels.
What are you trying to achieve?
We want to shape the image of our city. We want everyone to contribute to the branding of our city — locals and expats — through a bottom up approach! Our tagline “We inspire the city!” really brings this together.
Can you give us an example?
We launched in 2014 — before the terror attacks on Brussels — because I love the city. I want to inspire both locals and visitors to contribute to a liveable city. I have seen how a neighbourhood changes from being maybe a bit run down to cleaner, friendly looking just because someone planted flowers because a bar opened there. These ripple effects is what I love.
I’m passionate about a liveable city — less cars, more bikes, for example. So through WeLoveBrussels we can show through a picture or a video citizen-led initiatives such as Critical Mass who take over Brussels’ streets on Fridays with their bikes and rollerblades! Our posts help locals and visitors discover something new in the city — from a beautiful facade that we’d maybe otherwise wouldn’t pay attention too to large scale initiatives. We want to give space and a platform to the people to showcase our city — to inspire people to pay attention to details.
“We want to give space and a platform to the people to showcase our city — to inspire people to pay attention to details.”
Where did the idea for WeLoveBrussels come from?
I didn’t plan for the site to become so big — we have over 65,000 followers across our channels and receive well over 100 content pieces per day that garner 10,000 to 12,000 views on every picture and over 1 million impressions per month. Initially, I came to Brussels from Montenegro for an internship in the European Parliament 10 years ago. It was then that I discovered different parts of Brussels because of my “Mediterranean” nature if you so will — I went about things in a not-well-organised way and discovered great neighbourhoods outside of the centre and the tradition EU quarter by walking around. At the same time, I felt that Brussels was under appreciated because expats often apply a love-it-or-hate-it kind of mentality. I felt that Brussels doesn’t only offer the love/hate dichotomy and I found that there was so much that is great in Brussels. I think you can really see the idea that Brussels is the “capital of Europe” through the diversity of people in the city and in the different neighbourhoods.
I was surprised there is nothing that already existed which shows what is great about the city. Instagram was growing at the time in 2014 and I just set up an account. After one month, it exploded so I worked with a graphic designer to create a logo and the account took off after only four months. That was great and I believe it was needed — a place for people to show what is great about the city, on their phone and in the moment.
So your website wasn’t an initiative that followed the terror attacks on Brussels?
No, I don’t believe that you can repair a city image that easily. I believe that these initiatives need to be long-term and be built from the bottom up, they need to happen with the people. We really started with the notion of creating a positive image and a good story for our city.
How does WeLoveBrussels work?
People tag us to point to their pictures and we have contributors for our Instagram account and writers for the website. Our editors then select those who we post on our account and the website. Whoever wants to, can send us a post. We update both our social media channels and website daily and sometimes we also collaborate with some of the local institutions, attend their events and spread the news on important developments. Our posts and captions as well as online content is written in English but in plain, easy-to-understand English so as to be as inclusive as possible. This bridge between visual content and plain English is really important because we can tell from our multilingual replies that we really reach across communities.
“This bridge between visual content and plain English is really important because we can tell from our multilingual replies that we really reach across communities.”
Do you partner with anyone?
We mainly partner with photographers because we are a mostly visual platform. And some great work has come out of collaborations for our partners: For example, I work with lots of photographers who are not professionals but who were able to make photography more than a hobby for themselves thanks to the exposure of their work to our community and subsequent collaborations.
We also enjoy supporting small businesses, for example. They bring great value to the city and we are happy if we can showcase a great new café or similar. We are happy to associate partners with the positive image of the city and give our community the chance to experience something new. That’s also why I want us to be more plugged into the entrepreneurial ecosystem: entrepreneurs make change in the city happen and we need more creativity and entrepreneurship.
You have build this community from scratch and by yourself on the side. What drives you?
I love cities — the urban environment that is. I love to notice things around the city; love to be the connector for those who might not see it the details and changes like a facade or similar.
“I love cities. I love to notice things around the city; I love to be the connector for those who might not see it the details and changes like a facade or similar.”
What would you like the people of Brussels to know?
Pay attention when you walk around the city. Try and emit positivity; when we want the city to be positive, we should start with ourselves! And I would like to invite anyone who wants to collaborate to get in touch. Share your stories and posts with us!
Learn more about WeLoveBrussels at www.welovebrussels.org or follow across facebook / twitter / instagram
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