Ryanair: How they turned there image around using social media.

Ryanair is one of the most recognisable brands in Europe. They have made there name on low fares, no frills and the ability to fly you anywhere in Europe quicker and more efficiently then any other airline in Europe and because of that there profits and there business grows year by year. Despite there success Ryanair had a reputation for being difficult to deal with and sometimes downright rude to there customers. When social media really became prevalent in the mid two thousands the company saw it as a real opportunity to enhance there image by creating fun colourful and often ridiculous social media pages. The companies two main social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter surely do push the quirkiness and colourfulness of the company in a big way.

So what does Ryanair use there often eccentric social media platforms for? Well like most airlines they use it as a means to communicate with there customers and they seam to be quite open across Facebook and Twitter and answer most questions and queries that are thrown there way. They also use social media to advertise seat sales and other promotions in relation to the airline. On Twitter they also run a competition using the hashtag #Ryanairfotofriday  which picks the best picture of a Ryanair aircraft taken by a member of the public and the winners photo is then used as the pages cover photo for the following week 

Running competitions and simply answering customers queries online has really helped the airline enhance its image and has boosted peoples enthusiasm for the brand. Ryanair has put a lot of money into maintaining a professional but fun social media presence. Posting and uploading content to social media is now a full time job at Ryanair and the airline hire people specifically for that purpose.

By having people manning the social media sites full time means that customers always have fast way of contacting the airline and that openness has really gone a long way of turning Ryanair's image around and making them a lot more user friendly. 

   References:

https://www.facebook.com/ryanair/?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/Ryanair

http://zartis.com/tech-focus-ryanairs-digital-strategy-2015/