A while back, I
wrote of how I was growing tired of Facebook. On a personal level, I do feel
I’m starting to “come out the other side”; reverting back to the telephone over
wall posting, meeting new people at parties rather than on pages, and counting
friends on fingers rather than calculators. I did try to get into Twitter, but
felt I was shouting into a black hole with no acoustics. I also contemplated
Google+, Pinterest and Flickr, but became so overwhelmed by it all that I chose
to reclaim my life in the real world. Maintaining other-world existences on all
these sites is seriously time consuming. My time is precious to me, so I
figured it would be better invested elsewhere.
I do not dismiss
the power of social media. For businesses, the many platforms available offer a
huge array of opportunities. And for individuals, once you cut away all the
frills and hype, a following can be exploited to advantage.
Many people first
adopted social media for a number of reasons; curiosity, the need to show off,
genuine interest, keeping in touch etc. The next stage of social media is now
all about exploitation. People are starting to realise that the followers they
have cultivated and nurtured – for whatever reason – can be exploited to their
advantage.
One new business that
exemplifies this theory is innovative start-up, Victor. The company has
basically tapped into the unused private jet seat market, and has set up a
service that allows anyone to sign up and book themselves one of these seats at
an affordable price. Apparently around 40% of private jet flights are
completely empty (having only been booked to fly one leg), and 60% of seats in
total are empty. Victor has set up deals with jet companies that allow them to
offer these, otherwise wasted seats, to paying customers.
The end cost of each
seat depends on the plane’s final capacity; the more seats are reserved, the
less tickets will cost. For example, a seat on an empty scheduled flight from
London to Barcelona would cost me around £6,500. However, if that 12-seater
plane goes on to become fully booked, my ticket would only cost me around £600.
Victor therefore allows and encourages members to form online communities, through
which they can liaise with each other and coordinate group bookings. There is
also – of course – the option of finding new members that will sign up and
book…
…Suddenly those 400
friends of mine on Facebook come in handy. Victor offers what sounds like an
amazing service and opportunity. I’d never have dreamed I could afford to go on
a private jet – but now this is suddenly possible. Surely a few of these
“friends” of mine would feel the same? In comes social media exploitation.
Suddenly the more friends or followers I have, the more chance I have of flying
private. No more check-in queue hell, no more clambering over other passengers
to get to the loo, no more strangers’ elbows poking in either side of my rib
cage.
Ok, I wonder if
those 200-or-so Facebook “friends” I de-friended will be my friend again…
By Jessica Matthias
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