Chatting with fans of his television shows and answering questions from customers of his health spas and gyms, exchanging photos from his phone with friends and family, joshing with celebrity acquaintences and promoting his charity projects, his Twitter stream @DuncanBannatyne is clearly by and about the man himself – and as far from a careful piece of PR strategising as can be imagined.

No surprise, perhaps, given that Bannatyne’s corporate brand is tied intimately to his personal one – and his personal brand is that of the plain-speaking self-made millionaire who started out with an ice cream van and built an empire by hard work and blunt directness.

That bluntness was much in evidence at the weekend when his wife accidently left behind on a Virgin train the custom-made dress she was planning to wear at a formal event that evening.

Mobilising his 55,000 Twitter followers with the offer of a £1000 reward, he made what initially seemed a rather optimistic call for help: “The dress is in a cream cloth carrier back in the middle 1st class carriage. C’mon peeps prove Twitter can do this good deed.”

He even directed a Tweet at Virgin’s Richard Branson, who was spending the weekend in Bahrain with his Formula One team: “@richardbranson C’mon mate find the bloody dress or I will have a miserable night.”

But Branson – unlike his rival team boss and airline owner Tony Fernandes of Lotus – was not Tweeting through the Grand Prix, and only silence followed. Meanwhile, Bannatyne’s attempts to deal with Virgin Trains were proving equally fruitless.

“@kyletaylor812 Tried that, waste of time… Virgin customer services have not proven to be very helpful in this… @SylviaTidyHarri yes but Virgin lost property is closed on a Saturday… @BarrieCrampton Yes completly useless”

In fact, events were brewing up into a potential PR nightmare for Virgin – until the following conversation ensued with Virgin employee John Power:

johno4501: @DuncanBannatyne Sir your wifes dress has been found and is in the lost property office at euston
DuncanBannatyne: @johno4501 Are you joking?
DuncanBannatyne: @johno4501 How would you know that and who can I speak to on phone?
johno4501: @DuncanBannatyne no sir im a Virgin Trains Manager and called the Euston team to find the dress
DuncanBannatyne: @johno4501 What number I have made loads of calls?
johno4501: @DuncanBannatyne My Colleagues Chris has the dress and is at the lost property office now if you need his mobile please DM me thanks
DuncanBannatyne: @johno4501 Done that now
DuncanBannatyne: The fantastic @johno4501 is a train manager on Virgin & he took the time to locate the dress. Thank you John, thank you very much
johno4501: @DuncanBannatyne Thank you Sur glad me and my colleagues could assist you hope your Wife and yourself enjoy your evening
DuncanBannatyne: Some of you have not realised yet but we found the dress, the power of twitter has yet to be fully realised
DuncanBannatyne: @YourStylist Believe it or not a member of staff at Euston found it on the platform 3 hours after it was left on the train
TheWineyard: @DuncanBannatyne I think @johno4501 deserves a promotion/bonus for that! Talk about doing the world of good for a company’s brand image…
DuncanBannatyne: listen @RichardBranson do you know what a great employee you have in @johno4501 ? You should personally call him & thank him for his work
DuncanBannatyne: @johno4501 hi John I need an adress to send you the reward
DuncanBannatyne: Please join me in following the great @johno4501
johno4501: @DuncanBannatyne Sir thanks for you kind offer i do not require any reward if you wish you can make a donation to Clic Sargeant charity
johno4501: @DuncanBannatyne which is one Virgin Trians chosen charity caring for children with cancer thanks again
DuncanBannatyne: @johno4501 Thank you John I will do I am alrady a big supporter of Clic Sergeant
johno4501: Wow thank you for all your kind messages re missing dress. I am amazed how fast this story spread around twitter and slightly embarrased!!!
johno4501: please also note other colleagues of mine were involved in finding the dress so thanks to them to.
pep1209: @DuncanBannatyne Thankyou for the retweeting this. this is my husband i am v proud. he would do it for anyone x

A happy ending all round, with Bannatyne later posting a Twitpic of his wife in the dress, and one of himself looking typically buccaneering in black tie. No word on whether Richard Branson actually has contacted Power but, with so many big brand names like Vodafone, Habitat and Rentokil walking face-first into damaging Twitter storms, he certainly ought to.

As social media analyst Mark Pack summarised it:

The lessons from all this?

• People don’t stop talking about your firm outside of office hours
• When someone talks about your firm online, many other people are listening in too
• Motivated staff who can display initiative are good for all sorts of reasons – but their ability to react sensibly to online discussion about the firm is another one to add to the list

Of course there are pitfalls – as companies like Habitat and United Airlines have discovered. But they really are outweighed by the benefits. And forewarned is forearmed so, on this page we set out some secrets for making social media work for you.

Five tips for using social media

1. Offer something of value

Cast your bread upon the waters and it will make its way back to you. People won’t find you interesting, or want to stick with you, if all you do is appeal for their attention or direct them to the same old generic website link. You need to season things with useful tips, insightful observations and items that give your Facebook page or Twitter feed a human face. Your aim is to become indispensable – keep that in mind with everything you post.

2. Keep it regular

Humans are creatures of habit – and they dislike irregularity. Social media works best when used little and often, so don’t post ten tweets and/or Facebook messages all at once on a single day each month and then be surprised when you get little feedback. Posting at a regular time makes also helps you overcome the temptation to waste time online when you need to concentrate your energies elsewhere.

3. Be authentic

This is the single most important piece of advice we can give. Most proficient users of social media have extremely well-developed bullshit detectors. But, more importantly, if you are trying to establish yourself as a member (and eventual leader) of a particular ‘tribe’ – such as a group of sports fans – then you must strike exactly the right tone of voice. You’ll do that best by sticking to what you really know – or delegating effectively. It always works best when there’s an identifiable human being rather than a blank corporate persona.

4. Be friendly

If people want to friend you or follow you, don’t block them off – otherwise you might as well not bother using social media in the first place. Don’t regard other businesses or organisations as competitors to be avoided – they might have something to teach you, and there is always the intriguing possibility of strategic alliances. But this doesn’t mean you have to put up with people who are obvious spammers, using multiple accounts or who clearly have nothing to offer you in return. Be ruthless in blocking/refusing such people.

5. But remember this is work

If you are using social media as the public face of a company, you need to keep that constantly in mind. By all means be human and give your thoughts and observations on appropriate topics. But don’t stray into off-colour humour, inappropriate links or anecdotes that are best reserved for your personal feeds and accounts. If necessary, create a pseudonymous account for your personal stuff. It’s definitely a balancing act – but luckily one that is not too hard to achieve as long as you remember what your purpose is for using social media in the first place.

The tournament, which is the regular Test meeting between England and Australia, dates back to 1882 and is one of the world’s most fiercely-contested sporting rivalries.

During this year’s event, Onlineability’s cricket blog The Nurdler has provided a case-study in the effective use of social media, building a Twitter following of more than 200 at its peak, and initiating dozens of conversations with fellow fans. (The blog is named after a cautious batting technique deployed primarily in Test cricket.)

This built an audience for the blog itself, which offers a daily dose of cricketing news and humour, and helped position it as an opinion-leader in a forum that includes a good many professional and ex-professional cricketers, England team members, commentators and professional sports journalists.

Lisa said: “One time when Twitter really comes into its own is during sporting events of this kind, where fans can use it to share information, express their feelings and share the suspense of their team’s ups and downs.

“We feel privileged to have gained so many readers for The Nurdler during that time and to have shared such an exciting tournament with them.

“It shows how, far from being an elitist or minority sport, passion for Test cricket is alive and well – and the game is becoming more accessible than ever.”

The series was the first home Ashes since England won a closely-fought contest in 2005 – our first victory for 18 years – and the team celebrated with an open-top bus parade through London’s Trafalgar Square, a visit to 10 Downing Street and a strong showing in that year’s New Year’s Honours list.

But things rapidly came down to earth in 2007 when England travelled to Australia in order to be comprehensively thrashed 5-0. Thus the 2009 tournament was viewed with some trepidation – but also with the knowledge that many stalwarts of the Australian side were no longer playing and the visiting team was – whisper it – beatable.

Pitch conditions, the poor summer weather and vulnerabilities in England’s batting and bowling meant the team’s prospects of winning were a very long way from being a foregone conclusion. In fact, many fans did not dare to hope for a win until late in the fifth and final match, after Australia had set a particularly poor first-innings total with the bat.