‘Like for like’ National Express is ahead of the game, becoming the UK’s first public passenger transport company to be ‘liked’ by 100,000 people on Facebook.

The UK’s largest coach operator received its 100-thousandth ‘like’ on social networking site Facebook last month and has carried on full steam ever since, leaving rivals in the shade. The coach operator is now ‘liked’ by more than 114,000 Facebook users and counting.

A steady stream of competitions, special offers, giveaways and creative pictures have all helped ensure the popularity of National Express on the social networking site. 

The achievement is all the more impressive as National Express only recruited a dedicated content manager in May 2012, who also looks after the company’s Twitter account.

Increasing its Facebook ‘likes’ allows National Express to connect with more and more social network users to tell them about special offers and charitable initiatives, including work to support children’s cancer charity Help Harry Help Others.

To date, pictures of a specially-liveried coach in honour of the charity have proved one of the most popular items posted on the National Express Facebook page, which is carefully managed and monitored to ensure content meets user’s needs.

National Express E-Commerce Manager Sally Hawkesford said: “In this digital-age, social media is a great way of engaging with our customers and reaching out to new audiences. We communicate will our customers in all sorts of different ways and Facebook is an important means of sharing our news in a creative way, enabling people to keep up-to-date with all things National Express. Our success may be down to the fact we only post things we believe to be of genuine interest and we are constantly on the look-out for fun ways to keep people updated.”