Update: Winners announced!

And the results have been announced. Some usual suspects taking home the prizes while some smaller players claim an emphatic victory. Click on each category name to see the campaigns that were so keenly contested for these awards.
Best Airport in Social Media

 
Best Hotel in Social Media

(CitizenM Hotels)

 
Best Airline driving revenue via social media

 
Best Airline driving customer service and crisis management via social media

…And finally the big one!

 
Best Airline in Social Media

 
Moments from the Awards ceremony
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The wait is over!

Live from Amsterdam, we’re bringing you the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in social media – honoring the best airlines, airports and hotels in the world.

It has been a riveting contest. After 134 nominations and over 31,000 votes, we’re in Amsterdam for the final reckoning. The final shortlisted nominees are geared up to deliver their final pitches. Our three esteemed judges are ready with their marksheets and pencils. You can follow all the live action from …

Let the voting begin!
After 10 days and 69 nominations (!!) for the best airlines, airports and hotels in social media, the SimpliFlying team and Hotel Marketing Strategies blog has shortlisted the top five finalists for each category for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence. The “Best Airline in Social Media” 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, airports and hotels are free to request for votes through their social media sites, by emailing their frequent fliers and staff or through any other means.

One representative from the Top 3 most voted in each category will also 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.
The process

The voting begins immediately, and polls auto-close on 15 Sept, 2011
The top 3 voted in each category will get to make a 10 min presentation …

Update, 30 Aug 2011: Voting is now on for the awards at http://bit.ly/SMVotes

Airlines have taken to social media like a fish takes to water. Well, almost. Over the last few months we’ve shared with you over 60 case-studies that have revealed how airlines have used the predominant platforms of customer engagement. And you must be aware of stellar campaigns like Air New Zealand’s viral videos, AirAsia’s route launches and Delta’s Social media lab.

To honor the cream of the crop, the Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence are back for a 2nd year. Last year, we received over 141 nominations and 12,000 votes in just a week! This year, not only have we added new categories for honoring Best Airports in Social Media, we have partnered with Hotel Marketing Strategies blog to launch a Hotels category too! The awards will be held in Amsterdam on Oct 10, 2011 at the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit.
Important dates and awards process

18 Aug: Announcement of awards, and nominations open on SimpliFlying.com and Hotel Marketing Strategies
26 Aug – Nominations close
29 Aug – Top 5 Finalists announced for each category and voting starts
15 …

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
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Congratulations once again to all the winners, and thanks to the attendees and …

The Simpliflying Hero for the month of June 2010 is….(drum roll)…Richard Ziskind. Richard is being recognized for his outstanding work at Omni Air International, with the introduction of social media to the organization.

He began his career with Omni Air in 2006, directly into his current position of Senior Director Marketing. Richard says,  “[my] position enables me to create new airline models and strategically implement innovative marketing and airline design for scheduled and non scheduled operations”. A large part of this implementation has been social media, which Richard says is an integral part of business change – keeping flexibility in communication and enhancing the marketing processes.

“Prior to social media, our broad stroke marketing campaigns did not offer the opportunity for us to communicate with our customers”, said Ziskind in his interview with Simpliflying. He says that Omni Air International has benefited greatly from their introduction of social media, lead by his enthusiasm and support.
Claim to Faim – introducing social media at an atypical airline
Richard and Omni Air use social media strategically, given that it doesn’t follow the business model of a …