This summer I moved to Atlanta and interned with Georgia Aquarium (the best decision I’ve ever made and I could talk about it all day). I’m not originally from Atlanta and I didn’t know what all there was to do in the city, so I followed an Instagram account that did everything for me.
ATL Bucket List highlights the trendiest and hottest spots of Atlanta. It focuses on local food and drink, but also frequently features attractions, street art and special events. The Instagram account was only created a little over a year ago in March 2015 and already has over 57,700 thousand followers (and increasing every day!). Alyssa, the account’s founder, has now expanded ATL Bucket List into a blog, Facebook Page and Twitter.
Atlanta isn’t the only city to have this type of Instagram account. Nashville has a very similar account, Nashville Guru, and Chicago has an almost identical Chicago Bucket List. I’m sure there are many more cities with similar accounts that I just haven’t visited yet. If you can’t find a similar Instagram account for your city, I highly recommend starting one. Alyssa has become a major influencer in the Atlanta community in just over a year. This could have have easily been anyone! All it takes is one great idea and an Instagram account to gain a following. Through ATL Bucket List, she has gotten some exclusive VIP invites to special events, as well as free swag, from organizations like Chateau Elan and The Atlanta Beer Festival, to give away on her account.
Business owners should go home and pray that she happen upon their business. Just one post and 60 thousand potential new customers have been reached. These are 60 thousand followers there solely to get advice on where in Atlanta they should spend their money next. I am living proof that this is true. I saw these places posted on her account and tried most of them the next day. If you’re an Atlanta business owner yourself and ATL Bucket List hasn’t happened upon your business yet, Alyssa can be easily contacted by the email address located in her bio. If you really want to solidify your chances of being featured, you could always follow in Chateau Elan’s and The Atlanta Beer Festival’s footsteps by bribing her with free stuff. I’m sure she’d be willing to give your business a try then. 🙂
DANIELLE SHEPARD 
Great post! I never knew about that insta account existing, but I’m definitely going to have to follow it now.
LikeLike
I think that “bucket list” Instagram accounts are a great idea! As an Atlanta native, there are still tons of things about the city that I have yet to discover. I would definitely follow ATL Bucket List just to find out more about trendy spots and things to do in the city. Young millennials are at transitional point in their lives where they are graduating from college and moving to cities they are unfamiliar with. Most millennials are on Instagram, so it is a natural destination for them to gravitate to when looking for suggestions of things to do.
LikeLike
This was great! I lived in Atlanta too and followed the same ATL Bucket List account as well as tons of other food Instagrammers.
LikeLike
This is awesome. Made me think about other app ideas that could involve “city tours” and things of that nature. Also opportunities for user-generated bucket lists and recommendations. I have always been fascinated by the success of services that are dominated by user-generated content, and this made me think of that a lot.
LikeLike
I do the exact same thing when I visit a new city! I usually just search the city on Instagram, and an “explore city” blog or account comes up. This was especially helpful for the virtual roadtrip that I helped execute for my internship this summer. We “went” to a lot of different American cities (including Atlanta!), and to learn more about what each place had to offer, we used accounts like these! For example, we used a lot of food recommendations from @thenashvilleguide. Super cool- I love how social media provides useful tips, advice, and recommendations when exploring a new city!
LikeLike