Virgin is playing a lively role within the social media arena

I just had to share with you what’s happening on the new Virgin website, as its re-design and re-build is spot on. Why? Because Virgin has truly personalised its web space, made it interactive, easy to use and built this around the community and fans they have. Instead of focusing solely on the Virgin brand, they are focusing on the credibility and personal brand of Richard Branson – building up that feeling of trust and a stronger relationship with the brand. The whole site is as much about Virgin as it is about us.

Why I love the new site:

The website is a portal to visit all of the Virgin websites from all around the world and get familiar with what Virgin has to offer. There’s so much more to Virgin than I originally thought.

Virgin have made it super easy for us to comment, post suggestions, share ideas, interact and gain opportunities in the business world, that we could never have made before. Virgin has been extremely smart here. They have created a social networking site (plus more), all underneath the banner of their brand.

In the words of Richard Branson: “It’s your space to build and incubate ideas, help each other, get advice, talk to people and be inspired by other entrepreneurs. If your ideas can make money and benefit the world we’d love to hear from you.”

There is a section where you can pitch your entrepreneurial ideas on video, upload your films and if enough people in the community vote for you then you can be part of a pitch TV show – shown on all Virgin planes.

Again, Virgin are extremely clever here as they are making the opportunity a win/win. They get more exposure and credibility plus hits to their site/Facebook fan page thanks to us and we get the opportunity to possibly get our ideas put into action.

The site enables us to link up our Facebook account with our Virgin.com account. So we can post our virgin.com activity right into our news feed. Hmm… wonder why they have done this.

Virgin have utilised the Facebook connect facility which has enabled them and us to seamlessly hook up online – Virgin are among the biggest brands in the world to use it. I love Virgin because they are reactional to what’s going on right now and they have harnessed an extremely powerful way to market and connect with their target market. There are so many other brands, small and large, that all have the same opportunity yet hold back, due to fear and perceived constraints. Go Virgin I say!

There’s an “Ask Richard” section: where you can ask Richard anything you like and he answers the communities’ most popular question every month. You’ll find a “Quick talk section” on the landing page – where you can write about what’s on your mind and interact with the Virgin community. They also have their latest blog titles and some comments are displayed on the landing page enticing you to move further into the site.

In a nutshell, Virgin are leaders, they are willing to give new sources of media a chance and they are extremely community focused, they always have been. That’s why their new site is going nuts!

The purpose of this post is to highlight a big brand utilising social media extremely well and to show you how they are capturing millions of people and community members to the site. It’s also to inspire you and to get you thinking on a whole new level. Are you loving this or what? I wanna know – pop your comments below.

Sam Mutimer is a creative Web 2.0 strategist, speaker and social media marketer based at the ever-developing Thinktank Media. Sam has experience in the latest strategies and functionalities within the Web 2.0 world.