A couple of weeks ago now, one of Turkey’s leading social media sites, SosyalMedya.co, reached out to 1000heads for some opinion and insight about the amazing growth the area has seen over the past year.
The full item can be read [in Turkish!] on their site, however, Fulya Çimen, content strategist at SosyalMedya.co has kindly allowed us to print the full interview, in English, right here.
Why? Because the Istanbul social media scene is exploding and as an industry we should be sitting up and paying attention. The Turks are coming!
Enjoy —–
FC / JW
At sosyalmedya.co, one of the leading websites / digital platforms about social media in Turkey, we are covering a story about social media in Europe and the image of Turkish social media as well as that of Turkish digital agencies. Our main point of this interview is to acquire a foreign insight into these areas – to that point:
Can you define social media in one sentence, with your own words?
For me, social media is (any kind of) content that can be and/or is shared. It is not limited to digital either; you and I gathered around a YouTube video playing on my MacBook is also social media.
Can you define the impact of social media in one sentence, with your own words?
It is almost indefinable! The impact of social media over the past decade has been world changing on a level that we will only really be able to measure when we’re far enough away from it to measure. In the same way that the industrial revolution transformed farming and agriculture globally, the social media revolution is uniting people across the world in ways that we simply cannot measure yet.
Leaving out your own projects, can you tell us about a piece of social media work that you like most?
Here in London, we’ve just witnessed some of the worst riot scenes in living history. The damage is horrific and the impact on the lives of the community is abhorrent. However, through social media, that very same community has pulled together under the Twitter hashtag of #riotcleanup and, even as I type, people from all over London are forming together to help clean up the mess that the rioters have left behind. That is one of the most recent – and best – social media projects I can think of, full stop.
Internet is global. But when it comes to digital projects, do you believe in the importance of localizing as it is in traditional advertising and marketing?
Yes. Massively. I was recently in the Lebanon and the localization work that Nokia has done across the entire Levant region is truly admirable. We’re talking about a brand that is going through some huge changes and yet they still manage to maintain a foothold in these areas thanks to that fantastic localization.
Do you have any opinion or insight about Turkish customers on digital?
The only insights I have I’ve gained recently through the INNLondon project. Designed as a “cultural embassy existing both physically and digitally†its current city inspiration is Istanbul and the numbers and figures I’ve seen coming out are astronomical.
For example, in a similar trend to the rest of the world, the last decade has seen a 1000% increase of Internet users with nearly half of the Turkish population now an Internet user of some kind. This stat alone demonstrates astonishing growth and is something that should be both highlighted and applauded.
If you have an idea or guess about Turkish audience on Internet; as a social media professional, what would be the most effective platform/area in social media for reaching the Turkish audience in social media in your opinion?
Facebook is obviously the easiest response to this question, although I would have to research the numbers to get any real figures. My only prediction in this area would be around an increase in both the use (and access of) the mobile Internet and of course, Twitter. However, comScore reports Turkey as being ranked in the top ten countries for Google Plus adoption and so I would also be interested to see what impact that has on day-to-day social media life, if any.
What do you think about Turkish social media? What is your opinion about Turkish marketing and advertising industry approaches to social media?
Here in London, Turkey (and in the main, Istanbul) is constantly being referred to as a ‘new digital hub’, where the territory is fertile and the climate is right for growth. My knowledge of the local space is not huge, however the impact of the work that’s being done there is echoing across the globe.
