Using Social Media for Participatory City Branding: the Case of @cityofizmir, an Instagram Project

Abstract

With the rapid explosion of Internet, social media has emerged as a new communication venue for city branding initiative. The aim of this chapter is to provide a deeper understanding of today's communication environment, and in particular, to focus the greater interactivity, engagement and responsiveness of resources in relation to city branding. Thus, this chapter firstly outlines the participatory city branding, which can be considered as an appropriate approach for involving wide range of stakeholders in promoting cities as brands. Secondly, the role of social media and its influential users are scrutinized to better present their importance for city branding. Following this, the examined Instagram campaign to promote the city of Izmir intends to allow greater insight into how to utilize online platforms in order to communicate a city both to its citizens and to global arena. And finally, the chapter leads to practical implications regarding how to benefit from social media for effective participatory city branding. © 2017, by IGI Global. All rights reserved.