Effective November 2017, NordicTB’s Co-Founder Janicke Hansen is the new President of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA), a worldwide non-profit association working to improve influencer marketing in the travel industry.
The new President and the Board are mainly working to share knowledge about the influencer marketing industry through research, professional development, networking, and advocacy of ethical conduct and professional best practices. Speaking at conferences and networking at Travel Trade Shows around the world is one of the ways to create awareness and set focus on how the travel industry can work with travel influencers and content creators in a professional and successful way.
First official assignment for Janicke as the PTBA President was to moderate a panel discussion about working with travel influencers at the New York Times Travel Show this January.
During a session lasting for 1.5 hours, the PTBA team shared their knowledge and experience around topics such as the biggest advantages of influencer marketing for destinations, travel companies and brands, examples on successful campaigns, common mistakes, and best practices among industry for working with influencers, best tips for brands that want to start working influencers and the importance of setting goals and measuring results.
The Panel also discussed the shady practice of buying followers, likes and engagement and the use of automated bots to create a false image of actual influence, a practice that is known to be widespread amongst unprofessional and fake “influencers”.
NordicTB is closely aligned with PTBA and follow their guidelines for working with destination marketing organizations as well as disclosure and professionalism. PTBA has both influencer members and industry members and some of the things they do is:
- Provide marketers with a pool of vetted travel influencers and an audience- and niche-based search engine
- Provide influencers with access to a pool of industry members eager to work with influencers
- Publish unique industry research and whitepapers
- Create educational content focused on maximizing performance, value, profit, and ethical practices
- Provide expert speakers for conferences, trade shows, and industry organizations
- Help trade shows and conferences attract influencer attendees
- Maintain a moderated forum for questions and discussions about professional development, best practices, and industry issues
- Provide personalized assistance to industry members planning projects with our influencer members
