Social media moves at quite a pace. This line is constantly reeled off over and over again, but it’s worth reiterating because it moves at such a pace it catches even the most savvy of generations off guard.

Social media started out as a fad for the kids. If you’re between the ages of 25-30 you’ll have started your social media career when you were a student. If you’re younger, you’ll have been involved far longer.

This post is about understanding your personal brand and how you, as a person, are becoming a touch point in business and how your social spaces are affecting decisions people make about you.

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By Peter Wood, The Wall

So I’ve had this inkling for a while. It goes a little something like this…

What your friends like does not have a massive impact on your purchasing decisions

I know, I know… it’s a hugely outspoken thing to say. After all, Facebook have dictated to everyone in the marketing world that people are hugely influenced by what their friends eat, wear, listen to and watch. Sponsored stories; the advertising function Facebook advertisers use to tell people what their friends have liked, is supposed to be hugely powerful to anyone who wants to believe it.

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By Peter Wood

Facebook has always been about driving engagement, the problem they’ve had over the past few years is that their mechanism for engagement hasn’t gone much further than the inflexible ‘Like’ button, a share, or, if you’re lucky, a comment or two. This was great while it lasted, but it did open brands pages up for social media black hat techniques. We’ve seen a well-known socially irrelevant brand up their likes by 5,000 in the space of a week and take unprecedented engagement from people, that if you investigate, either work for their PR agency, or are praising the price of a product they’re ineligible to purchase. 

All very naughty and not in the spirit of organic brand growth.

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While browsing TripAdvisor last week for some inspiration I was served a small pop-up from TripAdvisor themselves which said, ‘If you like TripAdvisor, you’ll love this. Like us on our Facebook page, and we’ll donate to Save the Children’. Is this outright Facebook bribery?

Here’s my dilema, if I don’t ‘Like’ it I’ll be plagued with guilt thinking of the good causes I could have helped, but if I do ‘Like’ it I’m giving into this ‘Like bribery’ just so TripAdvisor can up their Likes on their Facebook Page!

TripAdvisor is a well respected site/brand surely they don’t need to employ such tactics? How valuable are these new fans going to be to them anyway? Not to mention the ambiguity of it all, how much are they going to donate for every like? I for one am not sold on this tactic nor the lifelong consumer commitment to their Facebook page. My advice to TripAdvisor would be; re-look at your Facebook strategy and find a way to engage with people that will make them want to ‘like’ TripAdvisor for what it is, not because they’ll be racked with guilt. If they want to continue down the charity route then go for it – the fact that they want to give to charity is a great thing,  but make a real campaign or partnership out of it.

For those who are interested I didn’t ‘like’ this out of pure principal and because I’m a critical media type. However, to save myself from the guilt I will visit the Save the Children page separately and donate.