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 the unaware, this was an April Fool’s joke. Hope you enjoyed it!***

Dear SimpliFliers,

How’s everyone doing? All set for the Easter weekend? I’m looking forward to a long weekend too, after a ton of travel and work.

As many of you following my Twitter feed (@simpliflying) must be aware, I spent the last few days in Uruguay. I was impressed by the southern-most capital in the world – Montevideo – and its rustic charms. Though, it was Punta del Este that stole my heart, with its smell-the-roses-pace of life. The people were great too. Although I hardly speak a sentence of Spanish, I had some great conversations with locals young and old. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I even became the Foursquare Mayor of a location there!

On Tuesday morning, I ended up buying a nice condominium overlooking the beach, and more importantly, the flight path of landing planes, mostly Pluna’s. They had a pre-April Fool’s Day discount going and I couldn’t help pull out my AMEX to make the down payment. I can move in anytime in the next two months.

I’m really looking forward to heading down to Uruguay. Now, if only someone would teach me some Spanish.

So all you folks, …