I was meeting with a very large Singapore-based company a couple of months ago.  I was talking with them about an upcoming multi-million dollar project and how using social media could generate some buzz, anticipation and expectation around what they were doing.  Basically getting the consumer engaged.  (I think we need a new word to replace ‘engaged’ as we move into 2011, don’t you? – any ideas?)

The CEO, a relatively young chap, is a great guy and someone who is very approachable and chatty.  Quite ‘with it’ you might say – quite down to earth for someone presiding over such a large organisation. 

But, throughout the meeting with him and about 20 of his staff, he kept talking about social media as some kind of creeping, terrible inevitability.  It was like he’d been given some bad news and was trying to come to terms with it and come up with a coping strategy.

Even just a few weeks ago I saw an article posted on WIT’s Facebook Page, asking how afraid hotel owners should be about visitors sharing video with each other.

Let’s agree, can we?  It’s all here – social media, the prosumer and, if you are a brand owner or custodian, the possibly slightly upsetting fact that you don’t own it anymore.

The only sensible way to go forward is to embrace it and the opportunities it affords with open welcoming arms.  To try and avoid it, treat it with suspicion or shy away from it in any way is a mistake.

If I had people coming in to my hotel with video cameras, I would give them free drinks and make sure they had everything they needed to have a wonderful experience.  I’d also make sure (if I was a worthy hotel owner) that my hotel was as great as I could make it.  So, as I sit in my great hotel, I’ve got people filming it and publicising the content all over the place.  And, apart from a few drinks, it’s free!  They’re going to do it anyway so why not help them with it?

See, told you it was nothing to worry about.