After receiving over 30,000 votes in just two weeks from airline fans all over the world, we are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence, to be held at the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on Oct 10 in Amsterdam.

The most voted category was the “Best airline in social media”, with over 7,200 votes. This was followed by the best airline use of social media to drive customer service (6800+ votes) and revenue (6600+ votes). The best airports category received over 5,000 votes and the best hotels category received over 4,400 votes, thanks to our partnership with the Hotel Marketing Strategies blog.  

One representative from the Top 3 most voted in each category will get a free pass to attend the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on Oct 10 in Amsterdam, and a 20% discount for their colleagues.

A distinguished panel of judges (to be announced shortly) will determine the winner after the presentations and they will be declared on the evening of Oct 10.

Congratulations to all the finalists, as …

Most social media and aviation geeks would have heard of or even used MySkyStatus and Cloudstream, two applications brought to travelers by Lufthansa. MySkyStatus instantly sends updates to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to indicate your departure, location, and arrival information. Cloudstream allows a traveler to “pack” articles, videos, and other entertainment into a digital carry-on that can be perused later on the flight, even without an internet connection. The best part about both these applications is that they are completely free of charge.

As coordinator of social media marketing at Lufthansa’s USA office, Alison Russo has been a key player in the launch of both these products, along with Lufthansa’s success on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It was not surprising, therefore, when she won comprehensively in our SimpliFlying Hero Poll for July 2011 with almost 60% of the votes.

Well-planned beginnings
Much of Alison’s (and Lufthansa’s) success can probably be attributed to the great amount of time and planning that is put in by the team at every turn. Right off the bat, when Lufthansa first started its social media journey, it realized that it was …

SimpliFlying Heroes is now just over one year old, in which time we have honored the nine of the world’s best individuals engaging airline customers. And on completing this first anniversary, we asked for some feedback from the industry folks and while they said they were very inspired by the stories shared, the asked if there could be public voting for Heroes, instead of just nomination. And we thought that’s a great idea!

Hence, from July 2011 onwards, you will be able to vote for the SimpliFlying Hero each month, from three nominees we put together (or you suggest). Additionally, we have decided that all SimpliFlying Heroes deserve a six month free membership to SimpliFlying Tribes, as opposed to the current one month. And that’s in addition to all the fame and the coveted certificate.

So without much further ado, please allow me to reveal the SimpliFlying Heroes nominees for July 2011 (…drumroll…): Jill Fletcher from Virgin America, Alison Russo from Lufthansa USA and Ali Bullock from Cathay Pacific.

Here’s a brief description of each of the nominee’s work at their respective airlines.
Jill Fletcher, Virgin America
Virgin America has been on the cutting edge of experimenting with social media …

AirAsia’s rise in the social media sphere has been meteoric to say the least, with the Malaysia-based airline hitting one million fans on its Facebook page at the end of May 2011, becoming the first airline outside the US to do so. This monumental number, which is second in the world only to Southwest Airlines, is attributable in large part to the efforts of Karen Chan, AirAsia’s Interactive Marketing Manager, and her team (photographed below), which is led by their visionary Commercial Head, Kathleen Tan.

For her efforts in leading AirAsia up the ladder of success in social media, and setting an example for other airlines in the region to follow, we’re proud to award Karen the SimpliFlying Hero award for June 2011.
The AirAsia team. From left: Karen Chan, Derik Chew, Swee Ping, Vilon

Tentative beginnings for an Asian upstart

AirAsia’s beginnings in social media were modest. The journey started with a blog that aimed to provide an open platform for AirAsia Allstars and AirAsia customers to share travel stories and feedback, regardless of whether it was good or bad.

At the time, the main fear for the …

Raul Rodriguez, Marketing Manager and GM for Europe at PLUNA, the official flag carrier of Uruguay, is our new SimpliFlying Hero for May 2011 for applying innovative strategies to improve PLUNA’s brand and making it one of the leading airlines on social media in Latin America.
Dipping the toes…
Raul’s and PLUNA’s journey through the social media space began a few years back when Raul approached the management at PLUNA with some ideas incorporating Twitter and Facebook.  At that time, the management at PLUNA, a 75-year-old airline, had embarked on a strategic plan to change the company’s model from a typical legacy airline to a more hybrid model. However, Raul’s “crazy innovations” were faced with initial skepticism. Raul, in response, decided lead by example one day at a meeting with all the other managers at PLUNA:
“I decided to project my twitter feed on the screen and I searched in Twitter for PLUNA, Live! 101 posts came up saying bad and good things about us. There was a conversation going on and we were not part of it.”

That demonstration, together with the assurance that no large initial investment would be required by entering the “conversation” on Twitter, proved a …

For bringing us campaigns like Winglet Wednesdays and offering exceptional customer service through Twitter, the SimpliFlying Hero for April 2011 is Greg Hounslow, Emerging Media Advisor at WestJet, the man behind the strong social media setup at WestJet.

Greg Hounslow, began his career at WestJet in various front line, leadership and management roles. Through his various experiences and the time he spent learning about social media, Greg realized the essence of social media and how it could be plugged into what WestJet did on a daily basis. As Greg best puts it:
“Since traditional media coverage is in the voice of the author or news reporter, the two-way conversation isn’t always possible. Social media allows us to tell the story in our own words and to communicate both one-to-one and to our fans and followers as a group. Social media is an important part of public relations and it complements our traditional media program.”
With a strong focus on leveraging their high level of real-world customer service and transforming it in an online community, Greg, together with his team of executives who had a unique understanding of social media, identified this as an effective means to communicate and reach …

Remember Rico? How about the “Fit to Fly” safety video that has been viewed more on Youtube than in-flight? Or the Bare Essentials safety video – all in body paint? For taking something as mundane as a safety video and making it really fun, and powering Air New Zealand’s marketing strategy through social channels – Megan Matthews is the SimpliFlying Hero for March 2011.
From Rico to Rich Simmons…
As 2010 drew to a close, it became clear that Air New Zealand emerged as a clear winner in terms of engaging customers through the excellent use of social media. Rico, the epitome of the social media strategy at Air New Zealand captivated the hearts many customers (and was disliked by some – by design), increasing the level of engagement with the brand manifold. Megan and her team played a key role in launching Rico through social media.

And Rico not only hangs out with celebrities like Snoop Dog, he also regularly features in Air New Zealand’s safety videos – another highlight of the airline’s marketing strategy. The “Fit to Fly” safety video now has over 2 million views in just over two weeks. While the Bare …

For creating innovative Facebook and Twitter campaigns like KLM Surprises and various crowdsourcing projects, guiding KLM during the the ashcloud crises and being a key part of a team of 16 people engaging customers on social media,  Lonneke Verbiezen is the SimpliFlying Hero for Feb 2011 (Yes! Heroes is back!)
The volcanic explosion that led to explosive growth
The ashcloud crises about a year ago was a catalyst for many airlines, especially in Europe, to start engaging their customers through means they were familiar with – often tools like Facebook and Twitter (click here to see case studies). It was also then, that social media tools became the necessity for airlines to communicate during crises with their customers.

One of the airlines that transformed its customer interaction methods after the ashcloud crisis was KLM – and Lonneke Verbiezen was in the center of all the action. And the impact of her team’s work is truly felt today. In the last year, KLM has come up with various innovative campaigns like KLM Surprises (see video below), Fly2Miami – where the first flight to Miami will transformed into a party flight on the request of a Dutch DJ, and …

After 12,000 votes in just over a week were received, the top 3 most voted airlines made their presentations to the panel of judges before the winners were decided, for the inaugural SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence for airlines.

These presentations were made at the SimpliFlying-Airline Business ‘Social media for the aviation industry‘ conference held in London on Oct 1, 2010. You can view all the Live activity from the conference here.
Categories and winners

Best Social Media Campaign - Lufthansa’s “innovative” MySkyStatus
Best Use of Social Media for Crisis Management - SAS Scandinavian Airlines - for communication during the #ashcloud chaos
Best Use of Social Media to drive Revenue - Malaysia Airlines’ 72 Hours Merdeka promotion
Simplyflying Hero of the Year - Aurelie Valtat, Eurocontrol’s online communications manager for her social media management of the ashcloud chaos to the aviation industry

View more presentations from Shashank Nigam

Moments from the conference
[cincopa AcOAhQ6YBm6c]
Congratulations once again to all the winners, and thanks to the attendees and …

After 10 days and 104 nominations (!!), the voting to determine the best airlines in social media is now open and you can vote right here.

As part of the inaugural SimpliFlying-Airline Business ‘Social media for the aviation industry‘ conference being held in London on Oct 1, 2010, we launched an awards scheme to recognise and reward airlines innovating in the field, culminating in these awards:

Best social media marketing campaign
Best use of social media to drive revenue
Best use of social media in a crisis situation
SimpliFlying Hero of the Year

Let the voting begin!
From the huge list of 104 nominations, the SimpliFlying team has shortlisted the top five nominations for each category. The Best Social Media Campaign had so many high-quality submissions that we just couldn’t bring it down to five. Anyone on the web is free to vote once in each category and give their favorite airline a shot at glory!

Airlines are free to request for votes through their social media sites, by emailing their frequent fliers or through any other means. Two representatives from each of the airlines below also get passes to attend the conference on Oct 1.
The …