Influencer Strategies that Go Beyond Cliches in Destinations
Moderated by Murat Zafer Ozbilgi, the Co-Founder of Gezimanya, the speakers at the session titled “Influencer Strategies that Go Beyond Cliches in Destinations” were Harjinder Singh Kukreja, a digital content creator and entrepreneur, Havva Safarova, an entrepreneur, travel blogger, and accommodation marketing expert, Mertcan Tanaydı, PhD (c)ın , the Digital Media Manager at IGA, and Öykü Yalçınyer, a digital content creator and social media consultant.
Mertcan Tanaydın, the Digital Media Manager at IGA, began by stating that Istanbul and Turkey are among the strategic targets for marketing and emphasized the significant collaborations they have made with influencers in their marketing efforts for Istanbul and Turkey. Tanaydın said, “Undoubtedly, influencers are publishers in content marketing. Influencers are among our important partners. We have influencer groups that we work with in a country and market-oriented way. But we believe that it should be more user-specific. Influencers play a bridging role in bringing brands together with their target audiences. However, the quality of the community is more important than its size. While what you say and how you say it is crucial, the message you want to convey must be understood by the target audience and communicated in a clear, concise, and direct communication style.”
Öykü Yalçın, a digital content creator and social media consultant, said, “When I work with a company, I want to take responsibility for my work. The right and wrong of this work can vary depending on the working discipline of the individual. When the companies I work with provide me with ease of work and I take responsibility, I see that more beautiful and creative works come out.”
Harjinder Singh Kukreja, a digital content creator and entrepreneur, said, “Turkey is like India; when you go to Istanbul, you only see a small part of it. You can’t understand a country’s culture in a short time. You need to go back there. We know very little about Turkey. There are many destinations here, so it has a great potential.”
Havva Safarova, an entrepreneur, travel blogger, and accommodation marketing expert, said, “Influencers were initially people who traveled for fun, but they started to emerge as content creators in the last 3-4 years. While it was enough for people to go to a place when I shared it 5 years ago, now I have to share information about that place when I share a video. We understand from this that fast consumption has a big impact on this. Searches on TikTok and Instagram have started to surpass Google. TikTok and Instagram have become search engines. Initially, there was a company-influencer connection in this business, but now there is also the audience side. As an influencer, I pay close attention to the comments on my videos and value my audience very much.”
