Who needs social media?

I had intended posting a piece about CAMRA, which I promised Retired Martin would be less controversial than the previous one. However, I’m still working on it, after having been side-tracked by the allure of dry weather and longer evenings. Our patio is in urgent need of a tart-up, so I’ve been on my knees raking out the weeds and the old pointing between the paving slabs, ready for some nice new grouting to fill the cracks.

Instead, here is a short piece about Tim Martin, everyone’s favourite pub chain boss, who certainly hit the headlines yesterday, when he announced that with immediate effect, he was pulling the plug on Wetherspoon’s social media accounts.

By closing the company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as the separate accounts held by over 900 individual Wetherspoon outlets, Mr Martin is turning his back on social media and taking what he believes to be a stand against the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In doing so he is effectively waving goodbye to 44,000 Twitter followers and more than 100,000 followers on Facebook.

Citing concerns over issues such as data privacy, the addictive nature of social media and the trolling of MPs, the boss of the discount pub chain said, “It’s becoming increasingly obvious that people spend too much time on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and struggle to control the compulsion.”

He went on to say that whilst this move was "going against the conventional wisdom that these platforms are a vital component of a successful business”,  he and the company's pub managers, do not believe that closing the accounts will have any affect on the business "whatsoever". He added that "on a commercial basis it saves people in the company time, and that will enable them to get on with their own jobs."

It is hard to disagree with his decision, and when viewed in the context that much of the social media feedback which Spoons were getting, was negative and centred on people complaining about the size of the portions they were getting, or that their breakfast was poorly cooked. And as each pub manager was responsible for maintaining the Facebook page for their own individual pub, this must be a distraction they will be glad to see the back of.

There is of course, no such thing as bad publicity, and Mr Martin has never been afraid to court controversy; especially when it suits his purpose. Not wanting to spark any further controversy of my own, I won’t mention his leaflets or the beer mats, in support of a certain cause, but there have been other equally contentious issues, such as dropping the Sunday roast from the menu along with the traditional roast-turkey Christmas dinner. 

Installing large-screen TV’s in many JDW outlets, has also not been without its share of criticism as, even with the volume turned right down, the screens are at best a distraction and at worse a complete intrusion on a night out.

The reaction to Tim’s latest move which ironically, was announced on Twitter as well as in a press release, seems quite muted, so let’s leave the final comments to a company spokesman.

"We don't feel social media is worth it in the social climate. There's not one event that led to this move. You know Wetherspoon’s – we take our decisions and that's what we do. We don't care what other people think.” 

"We're not bothered by social media and we're not hiding from anything."

In a strange kind of way I admire Tim Martin for taking a stand against the increasing encroachment of the tech-giants, and from a personal point of view I am not concerned in the slightest. I don’t have a Twitter account and tend to use Facebook as a source for various news feeds, and as a platform for keeping in touch with friends and family. I’m pretty confident then that he will weather the fallout from this decision with relative ease.