Final thoughts

After reviewing my blog, I've developed some of my own social media tips from what I've learned

• Social media can complement other communications campaigns (see Volkwagon, Vegemite, Virgin)

• Use social media to engage with publics who are already online (see Starbucks, Banff, TapIt, Vegemite, Virgin)

• Social media can be used as a tool to build support for a cause (see Starbucks, Rugby, TapIt)

• Organisations should monitor what is being said about them on social media sites and respond quickly to potential issues or opportunities (see Starbucks, Banff, Vegemite, Virgin)

• Social media is effective to promote contests or short term campaigns (Starbucks, Banff, Rubgy, Vegemite, Virgin)

• Finally, don’t ignore the power of social media! It should be part of the communications plan for every organisation!

Travelling with social media

The semester is almost over and travel is something I've been doing a lot of research about!

With so many vacations being booked online these days its becoming more and more important for the travel industry to use social media to promote themselves as well as monitor what other people are saying about them.

Here's a great example of a disgruntled passenger on a Virgin Atlantic flight who wrote an open letter to Sir Richard Branson about his distaste of the airline's food.

Virgin acted almost immediately and in fact offered the passenger a job as Virgin's food and wine critic (no joke!)

Virgin has since started using social media as a promotional tool. This summer Virgin Blue offered $9 twitter fares to 1000 people who followed Virgin Blue on Twitter.

This strategy of using social media to promote special travel deals is a great way for Virgin Blue to get there message out directly to their audiences. I think this is something we will see more companies start to adopt. Would you follow Virgin Blue on Twitter?