SOCIAL MEDIA
was not invented for brands
What
would
you
think
if
a
senior
travel
person
said
to
you:
“I
?nd
that
not
many
people
want
to
book
holidays
with
me
while
they’re
akending
a
wedding,
birthday,
christening
or
other
social
gathering”.
No
doubt
your
eyebrows
would
arch
and
you
would,
perhaps,
re-?evaluate
your
view
of
that
person
and
their
understanding
of
when
and
where
it’s
appropriate
to
sell
travel
products.
And
yet,
every
week
it
seems,
in
the
trade
media
and
at
industry
seminars
we
hear
senior
travel
people
bemoan
social
media.
Comments
such
as
“not
a
lot
of
transac:onal
volume
is
driven
by
social
networks”
or
“booking
travel
seems
to
be
not
applicable
to
social
media”
pepper
our
trade
newspapers
and
conference
addresses.
Now,
as
someone
who
has,
over
the
years,
had
my
Facebook
Timeline
invaded
by
travel
companies
using
my
page
like
a
pin
board
for
special
o?ers
(car
rental
deals
in
Spain
when
I
have
no
plans
to
go
to
Spain,
that
kind
of
thing)
or
brands
direct
messaging
me
or
using
hashtags
to
spam
me,
then
this
no:on
of
brands
seeing
social
media
as
a
sales
channel
really
strikes
a
chord
with
me.
And
that
is
that
social
media
was
not
invented
for
brands.
Why
do
brands
think
people
want
to
buy
from
them
in
Facebook,
a
plauorm
where
people
essen:ally
want
to
socialise?
Why
do
brands
get
upset
when
people
want
to
use
the
brand’s
Facebook
page
or
Twiker
feed
as
a
channel
to
complain
or
moan?
And
that
is
that
social
media
was
not
invented
for
brands.
It
ocen
seems
to
me
that
brands
(or
the
marke:ng
people
behind
them)
forget
an
essen:al
point
about
social
media.
When
a
brand
enters
the
world
of
social
media
the
?rst
thing
it
must
be
prepared
to
do
is
listen.
It’s
no
di?erent
to
akending
any
social
func:on.
Social
media
was
not
invented
to
be
another
route
to
market
for
companies
and
their
products.
It
ocen
seems
to
me
that
brands
(or
the
marke:ng
people
behind
them)
forget
an
essen:al
point
about
social
media.
Social
media
was
not
invented
to
be
another
route
to
market
for
companies
and
their
products.