The rise of SocialMedia influencers –
You see it yourself, on Instagram and YouTube, to name some. Pictures of your cities so mesmerizing that they can't wait to visit, short video blogs and reels about localities, logistics, and events so informative that they don’t need to buy a traditional travel planner book or visit tourism website.
Influenced by these; before city administration knows and gets a chance to plan and prepare for what's coming their way; millions of people already bookmark or make up their mind to visit their city in the next 1 to 5 years, many coming this summer or winter itself.
It's not only limited to tourists, but social media influencers successfully influence and shape behaviour of locals as well, in turn impacting how your city functions on a day-to-day basis.
Food, travel and lifestyle bloggers, help make certain neighbourhoods, streets, markets so popular that it starts attracting much more footfall and traffic to these localities than originally planned and envisaged, with imaginable externalities (increased economic activities, traffic congestion, parking woes and noise issues etc). Scores of people plan to come there on weekends and weekdays alike as everyone wants to take the heavenly bite from the overnight popular eatery and viral food truck.
High visibility of such neighborhoods in turn also impacts the real estate prices (it may go in any direction, but mostly increase in prices); pressure on regulatory front can also be witnessed (need or demand for change in adjoining land usage) etc.
The power of informal sector –
No one thought while planning cities that less regulated activities like social media, would emerge to have so much power that it may influence the city functionality, at a scale that could be visible.
Social media influencers must be considered an important stakeholder segment today in urbanmanagement, if you want your city to function well, also if you want to rebrand and reposition your city.
What CityAdministrations can do –
-Talk to them, engage with them, if needed empanel them in numbers, create an ecosystem
-Use their platforms as an augmentation of city’s informal communication channel, and latent branding tool
-Take their help in driving traffic and footfall to less popular areas of city, cultural segments, itinerary or excursion
-Plan better, plan with flexibility in mind, plan with statutory agility.
Non traditional actors of cities have started to take center stage, and cities must pay attention!
Author: Anoop Jha
Founder, Urban Tenets,
Netherlands
Image: Author
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