airberlin has had a Facebook presence since March 2009. Now the 50,000th user has given the airline the thumbs up at facebook.com/airberlin. airberlin has hit on something really special as a thank-you to its fans: to take part in a virtual photo competition, users have been asked to upload photographs of themselves using a recently launched app. The photo should show why the user is airberlin’s greatest fan. The community can use the app to vote for the best photograph. The five pictures with most votes win a visit to the airline’s headquarters. The winners will meet airberlin’s Facebook team and get a look behind the scenes of Germany’s second largest airline.

With its 50,000 “Likes”, airberlin has gained another 30,000 fans since the start of the year. In August 2011 alone, about 1,700 comments were entered on the fan page. The aviation enthusiasts also uploaded more than 70 photos and half a dozen videos to the company’s social media platform.

airberlin uses social networks to communicate with customers and anyone interested in aviation, and also to provide information about current offers and promotions. “We use Facebook primarily as a communication channel. The Dreamliner’s German premiere, for instance, was posted live from the event. If flight schedules are disrupted, as was the case recently with the ash cloud or the threatened strike of air traffic controllers, Facebook has proved to be an excellent and fast way of communicating with our passengers,” explained Uwe Berlinghoff, Director Corporate Communications.

Ιn addition to Facebook, airberlin is active on many other platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, Xing and LinkedIn.