Bending the social media rules takes creativity

There are very strict guidelines on Facebook and they are careful to monitor their accounts to ensure business in particular follow the rules.

So, I am always impressed when a company is able to play in the gray area and do a successful campaign on such a tightly monitored site.

Brazil's Go! Airlines created a contest with the goal to grow their online community and raise the company's Brand awareness. They asked their users to watch for new photos to appear of an empty seat on the airplane and type the seat number as a comment. They encouraged their users to refresh the page until a new photo appeared and the first user to post the seat number would win a pair of Go Airline tickets.

What was the result? The Go! Airline community grew from 12,000 to over 200,000 within a short period of time. Without making it an official “contest” they instead made a fun, engaging and very successful campaign at very little cost.

Yet another good example of creatively using Social Media to promote a business.