Fast-forward several years later to 2007.

Who Has The Biggest Brain? was the biggest thing to hit Facebook since the newsfeed, so I decided to get in on the action. Little did I know that my mathematical ineptitude would come back to haunt me as a result.

Congratulations! You have the same brain size as a monkey! Would you like to share this information with your friends?

Um, no thanks.

My mathematical incompetence aside, social games like Playfish’s Who Has The Biggest Brain?, and Zynga’s FarmVille are revolutionizing the way people spend their time online. Instead of endlessly stalking friends or ex-lovers, people have turned to games to kill time ­– and maybe even solve a problem or two – while on their favourite social network. And brands of all stripes are starting to play along.

Last year the social gaming industry passed the $1 billion dollar mark, fueled largely by brands integrating social games into their marketing strategies. From in-game advertisements to entire games built around name-brand products, engagement through games takes on multiple forms and presents unique opportunities for marketers – on and off the computer.

Layers of integration

Brands that want to get into the gaming – er, game – need to decide on a level of integration.

Light brand integration involves the brand incorporating advertisements, or even selling branded items, within a pre-existing social game for a limited amount of time. This is most popular among Zynga’s bevy of Facebook games, from FarmVille to FrontierVille.

For example, to promote its recent DVD release last summer, the folks behind The Lincoln Lawyer secured a sponsored link on FarmVille. When the link was clicked, a pop-up window would appear with the film’s trailer playing above, along with three simple questions. By participating in the quick click-through survey, players were rewarded with two free units of “Farm Cash,” FarmVille’s virtual currency.

Medium integration is the least common, but is quickly gaining footing among marketers and game developers. This method involves brand promotion within existing games, generally through a targeted mission that deviates from the normal course of play.

These short-lived campaigns tend to coincide with the release of a film, DVD, or recording album.

Last year gamers were challenged to find Rango through a quest in Zynga’s FrontierVille, promoting the eponymous animated film in the days before its theatrical release.

Before the release of her latest album Born This Way, Lady Gaga teamed up with Zynga for GagaVille – a themed game designed to promote the album. Canadian crooner Michael Buble also showed up in CityVille around Christmas, offering players exclusive access to his new music video.

Deep brand integration presents the biggest gamble for marketers. Developing a full branded game is a major investment, and there is little guarantee of success. These games can be found through Facebook advertisements, and even traditional media like TV and magazines. They generally live on their own branded micro-sites.

One branded game that took the web by storm is Magnum Ice Cream’s Pleasure Hunt. In this interactive game, the player controls the “Magnum Woman” as she collects candies around the web.

On her journey Magnum Woman visits a number of brand “websites,” including Dove, Saab and Samsung, though these frames are actually flawless mockups of the real sites. The idea is to show that the Internet is full of pleasures to be discovered. Pleasure Hunt is truly deep brand integration at its finest.

Real-life gaming

Some brands are drawing users away from their computers by creating challenges that require real-world participation.

Facilitating these endeavors are popular apps such as Foursquare and SCVNGR that are bridging the online and offline worlds by applying game mechanics to their social location-based platforms, otherwise known as gamification.

Last March Foursquare revamped its popular check-in app, introducing a more extensive points system aimed at “putting some fun back into the game element of the service” by creating better stakes for active users.

Now, players and merchants alike are cashing in on the game by offering discounts and promotions to users who frequently check-in at their locations, leave favourable comments, or drive traffic through their social networks.

While Foursquare is not exclusively for game play (it is first and foremost a social networking platform and crowd-sourced review service), SCVNGR is “a game about doing challenges at places,” according to the app’s website.

Players can earn points towards online and real-life rewards – that is, badges and discounts – by participating in photo and check-in challenges at SCVGNR-registered businesses and institutions, such as restaurants, stores and museums.

For its Happiness in Numbers game, Coca-Cola teamed up with SCVNGR to engage teens through mobile-based challenges at various sponsored locations – malls, amusement parks, and concert venues – around the United States. Players can compete in photo-taking and check-in contests to earn points towards free gift cards and Coca-Cola swag.

Also flexing its geo-location software muscle is Nike with its Tag game feature for the NIKE+ GPS iPhone app. From the app’s home screen, runners can invite friends via email or through their social networks to join them in this high-tech version of the schoolyard favourite.

Each willing participant must run (with their iPhone in tow) within three days of the invitation to avoid being “it.” Through GPS tracking, ‘it’ is determined by who ran the slowest, the shortest distance, or came in last out of the pack.

Gaming for good

Some brands have taken the cause marketing approach by investing in branded games that support charitable organizations.

Since 2008, GamesThatGive has created custom, for-charity Facebook games for major brands, including Pepsi, Quaker and MasterCard.

Khaki kingpin, Dockers, enlisted GamesThatGive to develop a Facebook game benefitting Respect!, an anti-violence organization. For every minute played, Dockers donates up to 10 cents to the cause. To incentivize players, a message reading “Reach level 3 and you’ll receive a special offer” appears when you first start the game. There is also a prompt for players to invite friends and share their scores – a move that increases both brand exposure and money raised.

While it’s still early days for social gaming, 2011 was an undisputed gold rush for the industry. As applications for social gaming continue to expand – from improving math skills to selling albums – no matter the level and means of integration, brands should take the whole gaming game seriously. Social gaming is more than a buzzword; it’s a business opportunity.

Last December, Groupon reportedly rebuffed Google’s $6-billion buyout offer, earning headlines and some headshakes around the world. In June, the company filed its long awaited S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, signaling its desire to become a publicly-traded company. Its IPO is being valued at $20 billion.

With promises of new repeat customers and increased sales, businesses have flocked to Groupon in droves. But in the aftermath of cars washed, teeth whitened, and yoga classes taught, some merchants have questioned whether they’re getting the raw end of the daily deal.

Back in February, online marketing consultant John Kurien wrote a think piece for Sparksheet predicting that Groupon and its host of competitors were a game-changing opportunity for online retailers. In the piece, Kurien outlines three ways that marketers could leverage these social commerce sites.

In light of all that’s happened since, we decided it was time to check back in and see how Groupon’s partner merchants are faring in these three areas.

Acquiring new customers

Image via noclipmode.com

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason stressed that it is not the deal itself that benefits merchants; rather, it’s the customer acquisitions from the deal that make it lucrative. In other words, the onus lies on the merchant to engage its new customers, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, or plain old email address acquisition.

As part of his ‘anti-Groupon’ series for TechCrunch, guest contributor Rocky Agrawal spotlights Posies Café owner Jessie from Portland, Ore., who nearly bankrupted her business by running a Groupon deal.

In an interview with Agrawal, Jessie acknowledged that aside from running a bad deal (her $13 deal was more than twice her average sale of $5), she also did little to convert her new patrons into regulars.

Agrawal argues that Jessie’s story exemplifies the flaws inherent in Groupon’s merchant information pipeline.

On the flipside, American Apparel praised Groupon’s ability to court new customers. After selling more than 130,000 discounted gift cards via Groupon, the retail giant reportedly signed up roughly 25 percent of new customers to its email list, generating nearly $1 million in surplus revenue.

Selling up

Image by Intersection Consulting via Flickr

Once a business has courted a new customer with a discount, Kurien suggests, chances are they will spend more than the amount of the coupon

According to a Groupon survey, diners who cash in restaurant deals are highly likely to spend more than the coupon value – roughly 98 percent of patrons, says Groupon.

Restaurant owner Carey Friedman of Grandpa Eddie’s BBQ in Richmond, Virginia, supports this claim. Friedman even went so far as to write a post for TechCrunch on just how positive his Groupon experience was.

Not only did Grandpa Eddie’s Groupon customers spend an average of $12 more than the coupon, but 70 percent of them were new customers. Even better is that 800 of these new customers returned to the restaurant after they had already claimed the coupon.

While this experience was overwhelmingly positive, this New York Times article suggests that running a restaurant deal is still a crapshoot.

Aside from restaurants, businesses of all types have experienced the highs and lows of running a deal. Whatever the business, merchants must have enough sense to navigate Groupon’s terms and methodically calibrate a deal so that it is difficult for customers to spend just the value of the coupon.

To that end, Groupon champion Bob McKeon credits a strong understanding of Groupon’s terms to the success of his photo printing business. If a merchant is unwilling or unable to discount his or her product by 75 percent, he says, running a deal is not the right move.

Free publicity

Image by Narisa via Flickr

One of the most enticing aspects of social commerce is the social aspect. After scoring a deal, many people’s first inclination is to share it with friends, either through email or social media. This brings a viral aspect to the deal, and means that no matter how many people sign up, businesses will earn a good deal of exposure.

Harvard professor Benjamin G. Edelman, one of the authors of To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts, names the free publicity factor as one of Groupon’s greatest strengths.

In his TechCrunch post, restaurateur Friedman also points out that his barbecue joint gained new customers from the exposure alone. These were people who didn’t necessarily buy the deal, but who saw the brand name – either on Groupon itself or through social networks – and figured they’d give it a try.

Café owner Michele Casadei Massari also acknowledges the promotional benefits of a Groupon deal, pointing out perhaps its biggest attribute – it’s free.

“Groupon gave us a massive marketing campaign that a small business like ours would never be able to afford,” Massari mentioned in the New York Times piece.

So what does the future hold for Groupon, its subscribers, its merchants and its eventual shareholders?

Considering its ever-mounting number of competitors, it remains to be seen whether people will tire of being constantly bombarded with deal-mails or, conversely, whether Groupon and the like will breed a society of ultra-dealmongers. That is, those consumers who wait only for deals to buy, consequently eroding prices.

One thing’s for sure is that the cacophony of nay-sayers is growing louder and more difficult to ignore in light of the IPO, leaving many critics wondering whether Groupon will regret spurning Google’s billions when it had the chance.

One way that companies inject purpose into their brands is through cause marketing, an old concept that traditionally involves a joint promotional effort between a not-for-profit organization and a for-profit brand. Good causes get great exposure by riding the marketing coattails of a deep-pocketed company while brands get to look good by doing good.

Though this sounds like a win-win, cause marketing is not without its critics. Companies run the risk of looking disingenuous by spending tons of money on advertising and basking in good publicity. Likewise, non-profits may be accused of selling out, or of encouraging a consumer lifestyle that conflicts with their values.

But cause marketing has changed. Social media have allowed brands and non-profits to spread their messages in new, unmediated ways. And these days, many causes have become well-heeled brands in their own right.

How social media changed cause marketing

The transparent nature of social media helps address some of the concerns people have with cause marketing and donating to charities in general. Brands are using networks like Facebook and Twitter to explain their relationship to the causes they’ve aligned with, and to alleviate concerns over where donated money goes.

These platforms also cost a lot less than traditional outlets like TV and out-of-home billboards, allowing brands to market the cause without all that frivolous spending.

Though their reach may be limited, social networks are also much more immediate than mass media. When Samsung teamed up with former NFL star Dan Marino to raise awareness for autism, it raised $100,000 within 72 hours by using hashtags on Twitter.

Branding non-profits

In an age where individuals and small organizations have access to the same tools as big media companies, the question is whether causes really need brands to help them attract donations or raise awareness. Non-profits are borrowing traditional and digital marketing techniques to cut out the brand and speak directly to their audiences.

With almost 280,000 Likes, the American Red Cross has taken advantage of Facebook to promote its website, YouTube videos, blogs, and Twitter feed. Not only does the organization raise awareness through social media, but it also raises money through direct donation links.

UNICEF is another name that’s become as much of a household name as Apple or Audi. We know what the organization is about – advocating children’s rights – and its brand name reassures us that our donations are in the right hands. UNICEF’s website also lets supporters shop online or donate directly to the organization, increasing both awareness and funding.

Building the cause into the brand

Some companies are doing more than aligning their brands with a good cause; they’re integrating purpose into their core business models.

TOMS, the “One for One” shoe company, has carved out a middle ground between charity and big business. Every time someone buys a pair of shoes, TOMS donates a pair to a child in need. Customers support the cause by supporting – and often being advocates for – the brand.

Sseko is a lesser-known sandal company that incorporates giving in its business model. The company hires Ugandan women who aspire to attend university. In this case, it’s not a percentage-of-sales or “matching” model that benefits the cause.

The company pays employees above a fair wage so that the women can support their families while saving for post-secondary education. Sseko promotes its products and its cause by highlighting the human side of the brand; it directs our attention toward the people behind the company.

Shared values

Whether a brand incorporates giving into its business model or simply partners with a worthwhile cause, the key word is authenticity. It makes no sense for a tobacco company to join forces with an organization devoted to preventing lung cancer, or for an environmental organization to partner with big oil.

Now that social media have broken down the barriers to communicating with large groups of people, cause marketing is no longer a relationship of convenience. It has to make sense. Instead of piggybacking on causes, brands need to unite with a cause that reflects and demonstrates their own values.

It’s easy to see why some companies avoid the blogosphere. Blogs are a pain to maintain. Readership grows slowly and not always steadily. And it’s hard to communicate your company’s values without sounding like a worn-out press release.

But a survey of the blogosphere reveals a slightly more optimistic picture. In spite of the challenges, smart companies are maintaining successful blogs by telling relevant stories to well-defined and engaged communities.

Finding the right voice

Corporate blogging works well for brands that create a distinctive voice people trust. Many technology-related businesses find success by providing expert opinions about developments in their industry. Tech companies also benefit from a sophisticated understanding of the Web; they just ‘get it’ when it comes to capitalizing on a blog’s strengths, giving them an advantage over, say, a scuba gear company.

Google’s continued success in the blogosphere is directly related to its expert content. The Official Google Blog consistently ranks as a top technology blog, according to Technorati. It’s no surprise that people trust Google when it comes to finding strategies for maximizing search results or managing digital content. With separate blogs for its various applications, such as Google Docs and Gmail, Google keeps users informed by highlighting the most effective ways to use its services.

Engaging loyal customers in your business

Some of the most successful corporate blogs are collaborations between brands and their customers. Of the larger companies in the blogosphere, none invites users to participate in its business practices like Starbucks. My Starbucks Idea is devoted to aggregating comments and suggestions.

Starbucks’ loyal customers have generated more than 24,000 product ideas for new coffee or espresso drinks, including fan-favourites like “skinny” holiday beverages. This process has also produced the Starbucks Card Mobile, which allows customers to pay on their phones. To top it off, Starbucks keeps people updated throughout the development process by indicating whether an idea is in the review or launch phase.

Identifying, understanding and catering to a community

Once a company finds its voice and establishes the best way to engage customers, a corporate blog can focus on building communities around its brand.

In a sense, Lululemon can be credited for fostering an entire lifestyle community built around yoga. The clothing and accessory company’s blog extends this community online, offering expert opinions from yogis and runners alike.

From demystifying its product lingo to sharing yoga techniques and retreat dates, the company proves that understanding and catering to the values of a particular community is what any great blog – and indeed, brand – is all about.

Whole Foods Market uses a similar strategy to cater to its own community of health food lovers. The Whole Story provides healthy recipes, shares shopping tips, and offers tangible rewards in the form of in-store promotions. It even follows produce on its journey from farm to market, taking readers behind the scenes of the local food business.

Telling the right story

Lululemon and Whole Foods Market build stories around their customers’ lifestyles, which reflect the brands’ values. General Electric, on the other hand, uses its blog to mine the company’s own impressive story.

Edison’s Desk lends a human voice to GE’s technologies while reinforcing the company’s history. The blog integrates Thomas Edison’s story into even its most recent posts on the correlation between science and music. This innovative approach to branded storytelling differentiates GE from its competitors.

Corporate blogs and social media

Corporate blogs may garner less attention than in previous years, but companies that use them successfully understand that blogs are an effective tool for telling stories and building communities around those stories.

Of course, the corporate blog is best used as part of a larger new media strategy. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube et al give brands the ability to reach a tremendous number of people simultaneously.

But harnessing the strengths of the corporate blog, companies can use them in combination with social networks to turn fragmented conversations into fully engaged communities.

Over the course of the last year, incidents such as Southwest Airlines’ Kevin Smith fiasco, and the ominous Icelandic ash cloud have elevated branded tweeting from a viable marketing helping hand to an indispensable B2C tool.

Searching Mashable for “airlines on Twitter” brings up a list of content long enough to warrant its own tag, with similar content appearing everywhere from marketing blogs to travel and tourism websites.

“Airlines on Twitter” was even poached as a domain name, hosting a tool for tracking airlines’ Twitter usage in real time. Like dog years to human, time on the Web seems to pass by sevenfold, and the business world is now well aware of the impact Twitter has had, and continues to have on their brands.

Content first

Smart airlines have learned that Twitter is more than a customer service platform or PR message board. With some brands offering funny and off-the-cuff content on a rapid cycle, following airlines can often be more entertaining and rewarding a pastime for Twitter users than following some celebrities. Air New Zealand (@FlyAirNz) out-tweets some of its much larger competitors, updating followers on the exploits of its puppet mascot, Rico. FlyAirNZ’s tweeted content regularly traverses the Web, often finding itself on Facebook, blogs and other websites outside of the company’s reach.

For an extreme example of content standing alone, check out the Aloha_Airlines Twitter feed. Even though the defunct airline folded its wings in March of 2008, its Twitter account managed to retain a fair-sized following for well over a year, solely on the power of its customer engagement.

Giving nods to other airlines and updating followers on the status of employees, Aloha lived on in spirit, and even managed to make it into more than one “best airline on Twitter” list despite being permanently grounded.

Branded contests

A popular form of branded content, contests and cross-promotions are springing up in hash tags all over Twitter. Drawing on the popularity of the Awkward Family Photo blog, Virgin Airlines offered a family vacation package in exchange for embarrassing family portraits.

EasyJet created the 15-Hour Blogger Challenge, showcasing four prominent travel bloggers in four destinations with frequent updates. Followers vote on their favourite journey for a chance to win a short trip to the winning city.

Cheeps & Twares

Some airlines do contests, others prefer deals. JetBlue pioneered the latter with their famous “Cheeps” concept. In the last six months, other companies have been quick to mimic these lightning-fast last-minute airfare specials on Twitter, with their own cutely named fare deals; United Airlines does “Twares,” for instance. Notably effective from day one, these offers continue to drive up hits to the companies’ main sites and effectively push sales in off-seasons.

Turbulence

Engaging in the real-time Web hasn’t been smooth sailing for all airlines. With the speed and scale of Twitter’s reach, it’s easy for brands to lose control of their message. As we reported earlier this year, Kevin Smith’s “not-so-silent” dust-up with Southwest Airlines was exacerbated by Southwest’s allegedly “snotty” online persona which, though familiar to the airline’s fans, was jarring to many outsiders, including the well-known director.

Like all recognizable brands on Twitter, airlines have had oodles of imitators, though the large majority of phonies have been weeded out at this point in the game. Still, Twitter users have caused their fair share of controversy in the world of airlines outside of airlines’ official accounts, including this hoax during the Haiti crisis, and this one following the Icelandic volcano eruptions.

Engage

Though many critics have praised Twitter’s real-time customer service capabilities, others suggest that a bandwagon mentality is the real driving force behind brands warming to social media trends, pointing out that embracing the technology is not the same as engaging with technology.

Some airlines still seem to prefer to use Twitter as a one-way PR tool, neglecting a large and integral part of the network’s value as a medium. In an interesting (if not exactly scientific) experiment, travel blog A Tramp Abroad attempted to panel airline Twitter usage by directing this query @15 major airlines:

We’re doing a survey – do you generally respond to customer inquiries received on Twitter? Average response time?

This experiment was completed in July 2010, with roughly 60 percent of airlines queried responding within 24 hours. Again, time flies in the digital world, and chances are that percentage has grown considerably, even just three months later. All things considered, it’s clear that Twitter’s status as a liaison between companies and customers has taken off, and will likely continue to soar.

Further reading: Airlines on Twitter

SimpliFlying’s list of interesting airline and aviation experts on Twitter

Cheap-o-Air’s top airlines on Twitter

About.com’s list of Top Ten Airlines on Twitter

Measure your favourite airline’s tweet-score with Tweetlevel.com

Track airlines’ activity on airlinesonTwitter.com.

Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via flickr

Inform

In tense, time-sensitive circumstances travellers turn to social media for information. The most effective tweets and status updates read like newspaper headlines: clear, concise and timely. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has been particularly good at this, using Twitter to send out frequent updates filled with re-booking tips, location-specific information, and links to more detailed content. No wonder the brand gained more than 4,000 Twitter followers in the past week!

Reassure

Between news updates, some airlines are reassuring customers that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Brussels Airlines addresses stranded passengers who may be worried about angry bosses or missed exams. Meanwhile, Lufthansa is keeping its customers’ hopes alive by re-tweeting passenger success stories while staffing up in airports and call centres.

Engage

Some airlines are going a step further by responding to customers personally. KLM’s Twitter feed is littered with @replys (individual responses to customer questions, comments and concerns) in both English and Dutch.

But some of the best engagement is taking place on Facebook, where customers and airline staff have more space to share stories, advice and sympathy. Lufthansa has been using Facebook to post updates and converse with fans throughout the week. KLM (can you tell we’re impressed with them?) has a “Volcanic Eruption” Q&A sidebar on its Facebook page and helpful staff members answering questions around the clock.

One of Facebook’s strengths is that it encourages customers to engage with each other. Like friendly passengers bonding in an airport lounge, people are using branded pages to exchange war stories, share information and even offer stranded strangers a place to crash.

Of course, Facebook and Twitter also provide ample opportunity to criticize and castigate an airline brand on its own turf. But losing control is inevitable in the digital age. And for the most part, all it takes is a touch of humanity to turn a disgruntled customer into an appreciate fan or follower.

In an age where almost every traveller has an iPod or smartphone, podcasts are a relatively cheap way for brands to communicate with customers and make their trip smoother. Travel guides, language lessons and other relevant content can be downloaded at home and consumed on the go.

But while a few airlines are experimenting with podcasts, most brands have turned a deaf ear to them. Here are a few examples of what airline podcasts are, and what they could be.

British Airways created the Dr. Sleep podcast series in late 2007, which offers passengers advice on issues such as jetlag, fatigue, and “the business side of sleep.” Combine this with their audio/video travel destinations podcasts and they get the Grammy for best audio offering.

American Airlines sponsors Travel with Rick Steves, a weekly hour-long podcast that features in-depth city guides and special episodes like “International New Year’s Eve,” in which Steves discusses how different cultures celebrate the New Year. American also produced a motivational series called Power Lunch targeted at the business traveller, but it hasn’t been updated since 2007.

Delta Air Lines puts out weekly updates on its flight operations, in podcast form. These are very technical reports aimed at hardcore airline geeks.

Lufthansa, working with custom podcast producer BCD Travel, produces the Travelling with Experts series. Aimed at business travellers, it offers advice on cultural norms and safety in destinations like China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, the series is available only in German.

While most airlines have yet to see the podcasting light, a quick search of the Apple store reveals dozens, if not hundreds, of successful airline-related podcasts.

Ice Pilots NWT, based on a History channel TV series, follows a fictitious Yellowknife-based airline, providing behind-the-scenes interviews with the (fake) cabin crew. Why can’t a real airline do something like this? Cathay Pacific, for example, already has a “meet the crew” feature on its iPhone app.

Then there’s Betty in the Sky With a Suitcase, which chronicles the misadventures of a real-life air hostess for an unnamed “major American airline.” Her first podcast, “Monkeys and Tigers and Ghosts… Oh My!!!,” released in August 2005, involved troublesome monkeys in Bali, bugs and bats in Belize and tigers and ghosts in India! Today “Betty” has almost half a million podcast fans around the world and her own eBook.

So why haven’t more airlines joined the podcasting fray? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes…

Imagine when you book your flight to Paris, Air France sends you an email with links to downloadable content – “French for Beginners,” “An Introduction to Paris,” or “Doing Business in France.”

Once on the plane, you can hook up your iPhone to inflight Wi-Fi or a USB port, download a video tour of the best Parisian restaurants or listen to a conversation with your flight captain.

After the flight, you can keep up with your basic French lessons, and listen to the city guide as you cruise down the Champs-Élysées.

Carriers can integrate podcasts into mobile apps or social media platforms and have customers engaging with their brand long after their plane touches down.

Airlines encourage passengers to take the inflight magazine home with them; maybe it’s time they gave them something to take onto the plane, and listen to throughout their journey.

The very first airline apps were so basic you’d expect them to be a no-brainer for any brand. They provided booking, flight information, flight tracking and mobile boarding passes, eliminating the need to dig through your luggage.

Then last summer Air Canada became the first carrier to provide complimentary travel information through their app,  including weather updates and the ability to rent a car.

In the last few months, things have gotten even more interesting. Southwest Airlines’ brand new app does everything mentioned above, but includes a built-in DING! function, which notifies frequent flyers of exclusive airfare deals.

Cathay Pacific’s app includes 68 destination guides. It also allows passengers to “Meet the Team” by browsing photos of Cathay Staff, making the journey experience that much more personal.

But leading the way is Lufthansa, with three different mobile tools. The Lufthansa Launcher provides customers with the now-standard booking, tracking and boarding services. Not a true native app, it directs customers to the German airline’s iPhone-optimized site.

The recently released Lufthansa Navigator acts as a GPS, providing travellers with an interactive map and Google Street View-like functionality. It will store your flight information and tell you exactly how to get to your gate, check-in counter, baggage carousel or favourite airport lounge. A native/web app hybrid, some features are embedded into the app itself, while others direct you to the optimized site. For now the Navigator is only being tested in Frankfurt Airport, but it’s a sign of things to come.

The third app encourages Lufthansa’s Miles & More frequent flyers to engage with one another. MemberScout allows passengers to share their geo-location, arrange meet-ups, give and receive travel advice, and even share taxies—a social feature suggested in this Sparksheet think piece last summer. How long until Lufthansa combines its three apps into one mobile monster?

A handful of other airlines launched basic apps in the last few months, including GOL, Luxair and Swiss International Airlines. And Singapore Airlines is already integrating iPhone connectivity into its seatback system.

But it’s surprising how many of the world’s largest airlines have yet to leave their mark on the iPhone or any other mobile device. In the meantime, we’ll keep checking up on them.

Brian Simpson and Adam Wallace at the 140 Conference in LA by CC Chapman via Flickr

I met Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson at the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, and the story of our introduction also tells the story of Roger Smith’s success.

It all started with Krista Parry. We were sitting at the back of a panel on travel blogging, crouched over our laptops next to the room’s only power outlet. Krista started telling me about Snow Mamas, the content marketing blog she curates for Park City Resorts in Utah. I showed her Sparksheet, and she told me there was someone at the conference who I really had to meet: Brian Simpson from Roger Smith Hotel.

Brian has served in the food and hospitality industry for over 20 years. A year ago he was diagnosed with a severe case of cancer and spent six months in chemo wards. While recovering, he found comfort and community on Twitter. After he left the hospital he quit his job at the Plaza Hotel and hooked up with Adam Wallace who was starting to do some innovative stuff with video and blogging for Roger Smith Hotel.

I had the chance to hang out with both Adam and Brian in Vegas. They came off as genuinely nice guys who understand that business, marketing and hospitality are all fundamentally about relationships. I don’t think we ever even exchanged business cards. It wasn’t until I got home and on Google that I realized just how engaged and influential Roger Smith really is.

The hotel has over 4,000 followers on Twitter, 1,200 fans on Facebook, 13,000 channel views on YouTube and 3,000 items in its Flickr stream. It’s been patronized and praised by celebrities and influencers like Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel and Gary Vaynerchuck and has established itself as the go-to hotel for wired Transumers. They even have a special rate for bloggers.

Why target this demographic? Adam explains it this way: “If we have 50 teachers from Maine stay at our hotel, they go back up north and that’s it. Social media people spread the word.”

Roger Smith has leveraged its midtown Manhattan locale to build a virtual community of brand evangelists. They hold a monthly social media breakfast and regularly host events and meet-ups with companies like Sprouter and 1938 Media.  “We’re a hotel, we’ve got something a lot of brands and marketers would love to have,” Adam says. “A real life connection center.”

The hotel uses social media to lure people into its space, and then broadcasts the hotel’s “stories” back out into the world. Their blog, Roger Smith Life, is filled with videos, photos, event recaps and art from the hotel gallery. “Content has been the backbone of what we do for a long time,” Adam says. “It’s about telling people’s stories.”

And that’s the lesson of Roger Smith Hotel. As we friend, follow, and connect with more people online than ever knew before, our thirst for real world relationships and encounters is only fueled. Once travel brands become trusted facilitators and matchmakers, the marketing takes care of itself.

“Krista was so excited to introduce us, ‘Oh you two just have to meet,’” Brian tells me, as we reminisce about Vegas. “Social media itself is not a business plan. It’s about connecting people.”

Ultimately. this is a story about a brand that grasped the power of new media very early on. They’ve filled a key niche, fostered real relationships with influential people, and reaped tons of free publicity—and customers—as a result. Notice how no one ever talks about Roger Smith’s rooms or amenities? It’s all about people, and the incredible power of good will in brand perception and success.

@RSHotel Twitter Feed

So, if you’re an airline, you can develop a unique app that allows passengers to purchase tickets, access their boarding passes, track flights, and receive inflight messages without touching a printed slip or clicking a mouse.

Sounds like a no brainer, but so far only a few airlines have done it.

British Airways led the way in July 2008 with a free app aimed at frequent flyers. Australian-based Qantas soon followed suit. Then, this summer, Air Canada became the first North American carrier to launch an app that lets passengers store their flight info, check the weather and even rent a car through their iPhones. (Though unfortunately these apps are only available for download in their native countries, so that a Canadian flying to Sydney won’t be able to grab the Qantas app until he’s down under).

Since then, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, EasyJet and others have released web applications—and several carriers, including SAS Scandinavian Airlines, offer mobile boarding passes— but the list of airline-branded native apps remains startlingly sparse.

It’s surprising because awesome travel-related apps abound. Check out this list of iPhone apps for airline geeks, which highlights applications devoted to everything from airport codes and airplane seating charts, to flight tracking and aircraft specifications. Meanwhile, augmented reality applications like Layar and apps from travel brands like Kayak and Lonely Planet are cornering the Transumer market.

Airlines might consider forging virtual partnerships with other iPhone-friendly brands and independent developers. Virgin America has already sponsored the popular itinerary-planning app TripIt. Now imagine if Guinness’ Pub Finder tool lived within an Aer Lingus app—both of which were integrated with Layar.

If airlines won’t be developers, they can still be facilitators, connecting brands and Transumers throughout the journey cycle. Travellers crave useful content in their medium of choice and if airlines don’t provide them with it, someone else will.

A Flickr group consists of a page with a photo pool and a discussion board—both of which can only be contributed to by group members. Most major airlines have a page, but it’s impossible to tell if they are “official”  or fan-created—which may be the ultimate sign of effective engagement. The discussion boards tend to be sparsely populated, but the important thing is that customers have the opportunity to engage with each other and the brand in their medium of choice (that is, without having to hop over to Facebook or Twitter).

Sadly, the majority of airline-specific Flickr pools are lacking in depth; one can only look at so many cockpit photos or shots of planes flying into the sunset. It would be great to see more passenger-focused pics along the lines of flight attendant/blogger Heather Poole’s weird and awesome Laviator series.

But don’t delete your Flickr bookmarks just yet. As usual, the airplane geeks steal the show with pages devoted to everything from flight attendant uniforms and in-flight meals, to vintage ads and airport lounges.

Here’s our comprehensive list of airline Flickr pages:

Air Berlin

117 members 1,071 items

Aegean Airlines

11 members 60 items

Alaska Airlines

39 Members 137 Items

American Airlines

352 Members 3420 Items

Asiana Airlines

26 members 115 items

by Levi Escobar via Flickr

Atlantic Southeast Airlines

43 members 146 items

Austrian Airlines

63 members 465 items

Brussels Airlines

32 members 219 items

Budget Airlines

69 members 1,269 items

Cathay Pacific

22 members 240 items

by Daryl Chapman via Flickr

China (Dynasty) Airline

143 members 875 items

China Eastern

28 members 165 items

Cirrus Airlines

89 Members 150 photos

Continental Airlines

284 Members 2,184 Items

Continental

Copa Airlines

8 members 103 items

Czech Airlines (CSA)

57 members 317 items

easyJet

93 Members 1003 Items

El Al Israel Airlines

58 Members 251 Items

Emirates

106 members 217 items

by braniffelecra via Flickr

Frontier Airlines

140 members 987 items

Germanwings

45 members 341 items

Hawaiian Airlines

34 members 152 items

JAT Airways

10 members 45 items

Lufthansa Group

316 Members 4,399 Items

by Austin '81 via Flickr

Luxair

46 Members 233 Items

MALEV Hungarian Airlines

571 Items 110 Members

Midwest Airlines

25 members 241 items

Northwest Airlines

284 members 3,939 items

Philippine Airlines

94 Members 627 Items

by Superlufti via Flickr

Porter Airlines

41 members 234 items

Royal Brunei Airlines

22 members 27 items

S7 Airlines

76 Members 373 Items

Scandinavian Airlines

110 members 742 items

Singapore Airlines

231 members 1,756 items

by an android's memoirs via Flickr

Southwest Airlines

653 members 6507 items

Spirit Airlines

36 members 114 items

TACA / LACSA Airlines

42 members 622 items

Tunisair

34 Members 223 Items

Turkish Airlines

175 members 1463 items

by rejuvesite via Flickr

Transaero Airlines

59 members 425 items

TUI (Arkefly, Corsairfly, Jetairfly, Thomson, TUIfly)

100 members 914 items

Ukraine International Airlines

52 members 48 items

United Airlines

317 members 3,565 items

by AV8NLVR via Flickr

Vietnam Airlines

85 Members 423 Items

VLM Airlines

15 members 90 items

Vueling Airlines

18 members 86 items

Saudi Arabian Airlines

33 members 191 items

SATA Internacional

43 members 194 items

by Carlon Bettencourt via Flickr

SkyEurope Airlines

20 members 101 items

Virgin Blue Airlines

49 members 422 items

Thomas Cooke Airlines

34 members 171 items

Malaysia (MAS) Airline

144 members 661 items

by Brucek68 via Flickr

And here are some of out favourite general air travel pages:

Premium Cabin Airline Meals

37 members 613 items

by taigatrommelchen via Flickr

Airline Cabin Interiors

299 members 1,157 items

Saudi Arabian Airlines plane by Ichthys101 via Flickr

Airport Lounges

69 members 574 items

Air France lounge in Charles de Gaulle Airport by TravelingOtter via Flickr

Airline Uniforms

443 members 424 items

Singapore Airlines crew by FlyHigh_kc via Flickr

Airline Graphics

21 members 49 items

An old Iberia Airlines brochure by Septem Trionis via Flickr

Airlines Ads

53 members  108 items

by That Hartford guy via flickr

Anyone who has bonded with a favourite TV show or obsessively re-watched a viral clip on YouTube knows the power and potential of video. But few airlines have fully engaged with the medium. That’s because video production is expensive, time consuming, and potentially risky. Here are a handful of airlines that have boldly launched their own YouTube channels with varying degrees of success:

Delta Air Lines:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DeltaAirLines
Joined: May 11, 2006
Subscribers: 2,005
Channel Views: 87,705
Videos: 47

Delta plays it safe, but with style. Along with the obligatory flight safety videos (in English, Hindi, Japanese and Spanish) viewers are treated to an unguided tour of the Miami Sky Lounge, a crash course on how to use Delta’s check-in kiosk, and 25 intimate and in-depth city guides hosted by Delta employees. Hats off to Delta’s sound team for spicing up the clips with surprisingly good ambient music.

United Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/uniteditstimetofly
Joined: July 29, 2008
Subscribers: 385
Channel Views: 86,033
Videos: 7

No airline today needs a first-class YouTube presence more than United Airlines. Last month, musician Dave Carroll posted a video to the site in which he tunefully accused the company’s baggage handlers of breaking his $3,500 guitar. “United Breaks Guitars” quickly went viral, garnering more than 5 million views and heaps of media coverage.

So far United Airlines has failed to respond in kind and its YouTube channel is littered with comments from angry musicians vowing to boycott the airline. We know we’re not the only ones waiting to hear an equally tuneful apology performed by musically-inclined United employees. Until then, we’ll have to settle for a time-lapse video of a United 747’s construction.

Qantas Airways

http://www.youtube.com/user/Qantas
Joined: February 14, 2006
Subscribers: 886
Channel Views: 42,856
Videos: 54

Aside from a few television ads and some historical footage, the Aussie airline’s YouTube channel is all soccer all the time. Fans can feast on interviews and post-game roundups with members of the Qantas Socceroos, the company’s world-class squad.

Virgin Atlantic Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsVirginAtlantic
Joined: October 16, 2008
Subscribers: 354
Channel Views: 18,118
Videos: 38

Welcome to the family channel. Virgin groupies can watch Holly Branson, daughter of Virgin founder Richard Branson, talk about the airline’s charity work or follow Sir Richard himself on an eight-day trip around the world. By spotlighting the Bransons, Virgin succeeds at being both personal and promotional at the same time.

Southwest Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/NutsAboutSouthwest
Joined: June 06, 2007
Subscribers: 662
Channel Views: 31,332
Videos: 129

And the Aviation Oscar for outstanding performance on YouTube goes to… 38-year-old Southwest Airlines. The Dallas-based company takes social media engagement seriously, and its YouTube channel is no exception. We’re big fans of the “My Old Man in Maintenance” series, which stars the airline’s emerging media maven, Christi Day. In each episode, the affable Day interviews her father, a longtime Southwest maintenance man, about hydraulic systems, aircraft flaps and other esoteric airplane parts.

We also recommend joining the roughly 53,000 people who have witnessed Southwest’s rapping flight attendant. And if that’s not enough, check out the audacious “Twitcom,” in which Southwest staff members act out a script written by the airline’s loyal Twitter followers:

Plus, a self-professed airplane geek shows off his collection of Southwest Airlines (@southwestair) cocktail napkins and Virgin Atlantic (@VirginAtlantic) earns passenger props for its Guns n’ Roses playlist.

Favourite Airline Tweets: Week of July 20

Searching Facebook for “airlines” yields more than 500 results, including official “pages” (which are administered by airline staff) and unofficial “groups” (which can be started by fans or off-duty employees). This can get confusing, since groups and pages look the same, and since some groups seem to serve as official pages, while some pages claim to be “unofficial.” To make things messier, some companies have multiple accounts (EL AL Airlines has three pages) while some have plenty of friends, but no content to show for it (Delta Air Lines has 7,570 fans but no updates).

Online social networking requires companies to relinquish a certain amount of control, and some airlines are letting go more than others. American Airlines’ wall is populated by messages from customers, some disgruntled (“We need to start a movement against AA and their GROSSED out 757s (domestic)… How do we do this…”). Other companies, such as Royal Brunei Airlines, simply recycle content from their website.

There’s also the messy issue of employee pages. Pilots, flight attendants and airport staff – both former and current – have created their own spaces on Facebook to keep in touch. These pages are usually open to the public and branded with airline logos, making them indistinguishable at first glance from official pages. This can be a recipe for a PR fiasco: in November, Virgin Atlantic Airlines fired 13 flight attendants who criticized the airline’s safety standards and dissed its passengers on Facebook. On the other hand, is there any better or cheaper publicity than a spontaneous employee love-in?

Below is our list of airlines that have an official Facebook presence (with their current number of friends in parentheses). Let us know if we’ve missed any and we’ll add them to the list:

Aegean Airlines (572)
Aer Lingus (885)
Air Asia (3,415)
Air Canada (8,959)
Air France (2,275)
Air New Zealand (1,403)
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air (2,652)
Allegiant Air (296)
American Airlines (10,954)
Arabian Airlines (194)
Asiana Airlines (254)
ATA (defunct) (547)
Atlantic Southeast Airlines (558)
Austrian Airlines (1,129)
Austrian Airlines Srbija (183)
Avensa (467)
Axis French Airlines (106)
Azerbaijan Airlines (976)
B&H Airlines (655)
Blue Panorama Airlines (106)
British Airways (219)
Brussels Airlines (1,495)
Cargolux Airlines International (480)

Cathay Pacific Airways (11,049)
Chanchangi Airlines (357)
China Airlines (510)
China Eastern Airlines (100)
China Southern Airlines (232)
Click Air (545)
Continental Airlines (5,996)
Copa Airlines (990)
Croatia Airlines (1,419)
Czech Airlines (751)
Delta Air Lines (7,506)
EasyJet (4,971)
EgyptAir (621)
EL AL Airlines (293)
Emirates (27, 423)
Ethiopian Airlines (1,148)
Eurofly (260)
Firefly (1,213)
FlyBe (72)
Frontier Airlines (569)
Ghana International Airlines (210)
Gulf Air (1,987)
Hawaiian Airlines (4,003)
Iceland Air (8,046)
Japan Airlines (2,475)
JetBlue Airways (7,536)
Jetstar Airways (1,497)

Kenya Airways (448)
Kingfisher Airlines (915)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (1,546)
Korean Air (1,300)
LAN Airlines (4,378)
Lufthansa (5,105)
Malaysia Airlines (2,272)
Mandala Airlines (857)
Meridiana (1,808)
Merpati Nusantara Airlines (458)
Mexicana Airlines (431)
Middle East Airlines (3,734)
Midwest Airlines(410)
MK Airlines Ltd. (184)
Northwest Airlines (583)
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines 610)
Olympic Airlines (1,326)
Pacific Blue Airlines (486)
Pacific Coastal Airlines (318)
Pakistan International Airlines (89)
Pegasus Airlines (634)
Philippine Airlines (3,856)
Porter Airlines (469)
Qantas Airways (8,701)
Royal Brunei Airlines (1,068)
RyanAir (1,302)
Saga Airlines (192)
SAS Scandinavian Airlines (4,609)
Saudi Arabian Airlines (2,704)
SEEAIR (517)
Singapore Airlines (30,589)
Skyservice Airlines (147)

South East Asian Airlines (518)
Southwest Airlines (67,965)
Spirit Airlines (283)
Sri Lankan Airlines (740)
Tap Portugal (870)
Thai Airways (2,865)
Thomas Cook (8,223)
Tiger Airways (180)
Turkish Airlines (7,074)
Turkmenistan Airlines (254)
Ukraine International Airlines (59)
United Airlines (8,817)
USA300 (220)
V Australia (944)
Vietnam Airlines (312)
Virgin America (25,259)
Virgin Blue (973)
Virgin Atlantic (17,376)
VLm Airlines (289)
Vuelin Airlines (495)
WestJet Airlines (4,961)
Wizz Air (636)

Here is a sample feed of our favourite tweeters (notice the gold stars next to their tweets), followed by a comprehensive list of airlines using Twitter:

Aegean Airlines: @Airlinesaegeanairlines
Aeroflot Russian Airlines: @_aeroflot_
Aerosvit Airlines: @aerosvit
Air Asia: @AirAsiaDotCom
Air Baltic: @air_baltic
Air France: @Air_France
Air France (UK): @AirFranceUK
Air New Zealand: @AIRNZUSA, @flyairnz
Air North: @Flyairnorth
Air Southwest: @AirSouthwest
Air Tran: @airtran
Aires Aerolinia de Colombia: @Airescolombia
Alaska Airlines: @AlaskaAir
Allegiant Air: @allegiantair
All Nippon Air: @AllNipponAirUSA
American Airlines: @AAirwaves
Anubis Airlines: @AnubisAirlines
Arabian Airlines: @ArabianVA
Asiana Airlines: @AsianaAirlines
Atlantic Air: @AtlanticAir
Austrian Airlines: @AustrianSrbija
BMI Baby: @bmibaby_com
Budget Airlines: @budgetairlines
British Airways (North America): @BritishAirways
British Airways (UK): @British_Airways
Cathay Pacific: @Cathay_Pacific
China Airlines: @ChinaAirlines
Cirrus Airlines: @cirrusairlines
Click Air: @clickair
Continental Airlines: @CO-Air
Corendon: @Corendon
Czech Airlines: @CzechAirlines
Delta Airlines: @Delta_Air_Lines
Dunx Airlines: @DunxAirlines
Eastern Airways: @EasternAirways
Easy Jet: @easyJetCare
Easy Jet: @easyJet
Easy Jet (Spain): @easyjetspain
El Al Airlines: @elal_airlines
Estonian Air: @Estonian_Air
Eurofly Airlines: @Eurofly_Air
Emirates: @FlyEmirate
Fly Be: @flybe
Frontier Airlines (weather and travel updates): @FrontierStorm
Frontier Airlines (latest flight sales): @FrontierSale
Garuda Indonesia: @GarudaIndonesia
German Wings: @germanwings_com
Gulf Air: @OfficialGulfAir
Hawaiian Airlines: @FlyHawaiian
Horizon Air: @horizonair
Iberia Airlines: @IberiaAirline
Iceland Air: @Icelandair37
Iceland Express: @icelandexpress
Indian Airlines: @sindianairlines
JEt 2: @Jet2_com
JEt4You: @jet4you
Jet Blue: @jetblue
Jet Blue (PR CorpComm): @SkyWriter012
Jetstar Airways: @JetstarAirways
Kenya Airways: @kenyaairways
KLM: @klm
KLM (UK): @KLM_UK
Korean Air: @KoreanAir_KE
LOT Polish Airlines: @LOTPolish
Lufthansa: @Lufthansa_DE
Malaysia Airlines: @MAS
Meridiana Airlines: @Meridiana_Air
Mexicana Airlines: @mexicana_com
Mokulele Air: @MokuleleAir
Niki: @flyniki
Pacific Blue: @fly_pacificblue
Passaredo Airlines: @AirlinesPAZ001
Pegasus Airlines: @ucurbenipegasus
Philippine Airlines: @philippineair
Qantas Airways: @QantasUSA
Qantas Airways (travel tips): @QFTravelInsider
Qatar Airways: @qatarairways
Royal Nepal Airlines: @royalnepal
SAS (Norwegian): @SAS_Norge
SAS: @SASGroup
Scandinavian Airline: @FLYSAS_com
SeaPort Airlines: @SeaPortAir
Seeair: @flyseair
Northwest Airlines: @NWAirlines
Singapore Airlines: @SQAirlines
Sky Europe: @skyeurope
Southwest Airlines: @SWAInflightSafe
Southwest Airlines: @southwestair
Spanair: @spanair
Spirit Airlines: @spiritairlines
Sri Lankan Airlines: SrilankanUK
SwissAirLines: @SwissAirLines
TAM Airlines: @TAMAirlines
TAP Portugal: @tapnews
Thai Airways: @ThaiAirwaysAust
Tiger Airways: @tigerairways
Transvia: @transaviacom
Turkish Airlines: @Turkishairlines
United Airlines: @United_Airlines
US Airways: @usairways
USA3000 Airlines: @USA3000Airlines
V Australia: @VAustralia
Virgin America: @virginamerica
Virgin Atlantic: @virginatlantic
Virgin Blue: @virginblue
Vision Airlines: @visiontravel
Vueling: @vueling
WestJet Airlines: @westjet
Wizz Air: @wizzair