SOCIAL MEDIA CAN ACT AS AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM WHEN
THINGS GO WRONG. OFTEN TWITTER CAN BE WAY AHEAD OF OFFICIAL CHANNELS WHEN IT COMES TO ISSUES AFFECTING TRAVEL
“Social media is one communication tool among many,” says
Festive Road’s Kilgannon. “You can’t reach everybody with this tool but if your employees are talking about travel on social media, you need to be part of the conversation. Social media is less corporate in tone – messages should be more concise with links to more information, where appropriate.” Kilgannon urges buyers who use social media to make sure these channels are “constantly monitored” to stay in control of the message. She adds: “If a complaint goes unnoticed, others fill in the gaps and a cycle of misinformation begins.” Using social media may seem like another task on the buyers’
“to do” list, but it’s increasingly hard to ignore. Managed prop- erly it can open up new ways to communicate with travellers and help to improve satisfaction levels. After all, most travel- lers just want to know somebody is listening.