And it seems Wotif is among those who have dared to try. At WIT, Wotif Group’s CEO Robbie Cooke had said the group would attempt to do new things in social media in 2011.

And so it did late last month. On March 24, it launched a promotion on Facebook and Twitter to celebrate its 11th birthday and it offered $11 deals for 11 minutes.

Said the promotion, “We’re turning 11 which means $11 deals for you. Yes, it is shocking. No, it isn’t a typo. For 11 minutes on 24 March well have some rooms on Wotif.com selling for $11. Entire booking must be completed within the 11 minute time frame. Promotion may sell out early. You’ll need to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out exactly when they become available.”

The promotion sold out – too fast obviously judging by some of the comments from disappointed customers who didn’t get the deals.

Tnooz node, Graham Robertson, writing this post right after the promotion was launched, said, “In theory, this looked like a great idea, but what is believed to be a combination of limited stock and technical issues seemed to put a damper on the birthday celebrations – with the backlash almost immediate.

“Inevitably, Wotif’s Facebook fans immediately took to the fan page’s wall to vent their frustrations about the problems they experienced when trying to get the cheap deals, many saying they were “unliking” the OTA and urging others to do so as well.”

However, there were also a lot of positive comments from those who did manage to grab the deals and those who rose to Wotif’s defence against disgruntled fans.

The promotion increased Wotif’s Facebook fans by 20,000 in two weeks. It now stands at more than 60,000 fans and a check on its Facebook page shows quite an active engagement with fans.

A Wotif spokesperson, Kate Fisher, responding to a question by WIT on whether it felt the promotion was a failure, said, “We didn’t feel anything went wrong, but there are always lessons to be learnt and we have taken lots of our fans and followers feedback on board for next time.”

She said Wotif wanted to do something fun and a bit quirky with its brand given its 11th birthday.

“It was very exciting with lots of people talking about it and interacting on our Facebook wall and on Twitter throughout the day. Thousands of people were really thrilled they scored $11 hotel rooms.”

Asked if it would do it again, Fisher said, “Yes, we run promotions regularly.”