Analysing Food Image Branding of Turkey From Instagram Social Media Platform

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to discover the most popular foods in Turkish cuisine by analysing user-generated content (UGC) and analysing Instagram posts to determine the most popular themes within a gastronomical context. Photographs, likes, and hashtags of 1167 posts shared with “#turkishfood” hashtag are analysed due to the representative power of this hashtag for the Turkish cuisine. Photography and text mining techniques are used under data mining. Findings for photographs and likes show that users have high and low perceived images for certain food categories. Hashtag findings support the user’s positive attitude towards Turkish cuisine. The study will help the destination develop future social media strategies by revealing the strengths and weaknesses of user-generated content (UGC) in the destination's food image branding. This study offers theoretical and practical implications by showing existing and possible image elements for destination food branding with social media.