Travel brands and blogs: ABTA's not-quite-a-comment on Travel Rants
August 4, 2008
Imagine you're a big travel brand (ABTA, for instance) and you encounter criticism on a popular consumer blog (let's say, er, Travel Rants).
You read the post, decide that it merits a response, and that you're comfortable with the response being public.
So you write the response in an email and send it to the blogger, who publishes it as a comment... on the interactive discussion you were just reading.
Hmm.
What you've done is functionally identical to leaving a comment. But you're still not comfortable with actually leaving a comment.
Still, it's good to see a travel brand's press office pay attention to a consumer blog. Next time click 'post', ABTA - the people you're talking to will like you better for it.
This is a staple subject among travel and travel industry bloggers - see for example:
- A report on the PhoCusWright bloggers' summit by Tracking Tourism
- The same from Canadian Tourism
- A Travel Rants post about the industry fearing bloggers
Nathan Midgley
Martin Couzins
Comments (3)
It pleases me that Travel Rants is creating discussion in the travel media, it means that someone close to the industry is taking notice.
Abta are one of the few organisations that takes the time to respond to me about comsumer issues.
I'd like to know from travel weekly readers why travel companies dont like to interact with bloggers?
Posted by Darren Cronian | August 4, 2008 6:16 PM
Posted on August 4, 2008 18:16
Give this a read Darren - it's something our publisher's blogging expert wrote about why some journalists are reluctant to get involved in blogs and other user discussions.
I suspect some of the fears he lays out (and which I hasten to add aren't shared by everyone in the media) are the same as those you'd find in marketing departments and press offices.
There's also the fact that press offices are busy places, so it'll take some very compelling evidence to convince them to divert resource to monitoring and engaging with blogs. I think it'll probably happen, but not for a while.
Posted by Nathan Midgley | August 4, 2008 7:18 PM
Posted on August 4, 2008 19:18
I'll check the link out thanks.
The door is always open on TR :) I take the point that people are busy, but I work full-time, and I manage to put myself about (I mean I network!) with corporate and non corporate travel blogs.
Posted by Darren Cronian | August 4, 2008 11:46 PM
Posted on August 4, 2008 23:46