Let’s face it - social media is a huge topic in the online universe, with posts created every second offering opinions on trending topics or commenting on the latest news.  But can social media really make a difference to the bottom line for travel companies?   According to econsultancy.com, 70% of all bloggers are organically talking about brands on their own blog, which of course is worth its weight in gold with regards to SEO development.  With  an authoritative, relevant blogger producing great content about your brand, you gain free brand awareness and possibly additional traffic to your site. Read the rest of this entry...

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On the 14th April 2010 something big erupted in the travel industry, or as one of our clients called it: an ashtrocity! The Icelandic volcano, called Eyjafjallajökull, ejected volcanic ash to heights in excess of 30,000ft and few could have predicted the chaos and millions of pounds it would cost the travel industry and the economy. With huge amounts of ash in the atmosphere, controlled airspace in the UK was shut down for fear of damage to the aircraft engines. By the 17th April, there was a no fly zone in the airspace of more than 25 countries. This resulted in the largest air traffic shut-down since World War II and caused millions of passengers to be stranded not only in Europe, but across the world. Airspace was closed for six days; a decision which was later criticised by most airlines who were suffering huge financial losses. According to Giovanni Bisignani, the Director General of The Air Transport Association, the ash crisis cost the airline industry up to £130...

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Social media has sparked a range of pledges and charity initiatives that are demonstrating social media's ability to achieve social change. Tuesday 24th March saw the first ever Ada Lovelace Day and the campaign was a huge success. The campaign was initiated by Suw Charman-Anderson and was designed to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Ada Lovelace was one of the world's first computer programmers, having written a programme for Charles Babbage's "analytical engine" and had a vision for computers that extended beyond even his own. Suw pledged to publish a blog post about a woman in technology, only if 1,000 others agreed to do the same. This target was far exceeded, with over 1,980 signing up to the campaign. Ada Lovelace Day served an important purpose, by highlighting women's achievement in technology across the world, both past and present. A contribution often overlooked. Read the rest of this entry...

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This week saw the culmination of a 48 hour Twitter popularity campaign between British Comedian Russell Brand, and the US talk show host, Jimmy Fallon. (Watch the tv interview here) Before the campaign began, Fallon began with a distinct 200,000 follower head-start but it was Brand that actually achieved more in the build up to his TV appearance on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' where he plugged his US stand-up and book signing tour. A combination of blog posts, tweets, retweets, Facebook updates and video pleas resulted in Russell increasing his followers by 23%, that's an additional 17,000 people he can now directly inform of his latest tour, book, movie etc. Read the rest of this entry...

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