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SOUTHWEST AIRLINESNUTS ABOUT COMMUNICATION
Online
July 2011@brooksethomas #SWAManSays
Where We’ve Been
April 06: The “Nuts About Southwest” Blog is launched, picking up where Airline left off.
December 06: The Southwest Airlines Marketing Team uses YouTube to host a “Wanna Get Away”video submission contest
February 07: A media buy is used to launch a Facebook page to host a basketball bracket game.
Summer 07: Southwest begins a YouTube channel. And joins Twitter!
May 07: A Social Media integration team is created between Communications and Marketing.
May 08: The Nuts About Southwest Blog get a makeover, allowing users to access YouTube, Flickr, from the homepage.
Feb 08: The PR team uses YouTube to respond to customers deemed by the media as “Too Pretty to Fly.”
Aug 08: The Emerging Media Team is developed within Communications and includes 4 full-time Social Media employees.
Sept 09: The Emerging Media Team is converged with the PR and Employee Communication team
July 09: The Social Media crisis response is tested when Flight 2294 makes an Emergency Landing with a hole in the fuselage.
Oct. 09: Southwest Airlines streams a press conference announcing Panama City service LIVE within Facebook.
Jan 09: The Social Media Council and The Rapid Response teams are created.
March 10: The Employee Blog is launched.
20102009200820072006
Our Job Responsibilities
Primary:
LISTEN
Secondary:
ENGAGE & SHARE VIA ORGANIC CONVERSATIONS
Social Media is thriving at Southwest Airlines! We continue to stay ahead of our competitors while still maintaining our unique sense of simplicity.
Some of the sites we are actively participating in:
Where We Are Now
The Official Southwest Fan Page has more than 1.6 million Facebook fans, more than any other airline!
Station Fan Pages:
• Allow interaction with the community.• Permit conversation is in a controlled environment.• Empower Employees to have a voice.• Offer us power in numbers!
But…with guidelines! We currently have about 30 stations using a Facebook Fan Page to connect to the community!
Twitter is a tool used to share short (140 character) updates to anyone who chooses to follow your updates.
But you knew that… right?
On Twitter, SouthwestAir has more than 1 million followers!
However… Lady Gaga has the highest number of Twitter followers with 11.5 million!
The last time I did this presentation Lady Gaga had 10.8 million followers
That was in June
Our Page
Top 10 Things We Do on Twitter
• Monitor: We monitor keywords regarding the industry and Southwest.
• Respond: If necessary, we respond to questions and concerns.
• Live Tweet Events/Create Buzz: From plane pulls to city openings – we provide real time updates to
followers.
• Behind the Scenes Glimpse: Followers love to see what’s going on behind the scenes at SWA.
• Connect with Reporters/Bloggers: We respond to media or put them in touch with a spokesperson.
• Quickly Gain Insight: Our Twitter audience is quick to tell us if they like an idea or not. They dish out
their thoughts and act as a virtual focus group.
• Emergency Notifications: we’ve used Twitter multiple times to share information regarding emergencies or incidents.
• Sharing our Story! Southwest has a long history or being FUN, friendly, and outgoing. Twitter takes that persona and brings it to the Internet. For example, singing flight attendants, LUV couples, and the best inflight/gate agent humor are all shared via Twitter.
24/7 Monitoring and Engagement
Desktop Monitoring : Tweetdeck Mobile Interaction: Twitter App
Content Management: CoTweet
Measurement: Radian6
Nuts About Southwest on
Social Media Steering Committee
Communications
Marketing Customer Relations
Responsibility:• The channel “voices”• Blog/community management• Corporate Social Media strategy• Employee Mobile Communication• Crisis Comm/Rapid Response• Business consulting• Employee policy creation• Conversation monitoring• New platform tests
Responsibility:• “Look and Feel” of channels• Fan/Follower Acquisition• Brand positioning and creative platform extensions• Social experience definition• Vendor recommendations• Strategic partnership opportunities• Paid media within the social space• Revenue generating social initiatives
How Can We Stay Ahead?
Responsibility:• AOM messaging on social channels• Rapid Response Team communication• Customer Relations “voice” within social media channels• Contact Resolution/TLC• Business consulting
To reshape our consumer-to-brand relationship, we should establish a new governance entity capable of:
• Identifying and executing strategic opportunities.
• Develop company-wide relationship building capability.
• Scale the success without interrupting the well-earned equity and momentum.
Customers do not care about departments, silos or turf. They want answers and solutions. We must organize ourselves behind the scenes to provide these two things wherever our customers are. In turn, we will win, we will build reputation, and will create brand advocates.
Our Hub for Content
Where we Showcase:• Company News• Contests• Interesting Stories
Blog: Content Generation
Blog Team• About 30 Members• Pilots, Flight
Attendants, Etc.• Minimum 2 Posts Per
Month• All Are Volunteers
Blog: Content Generation
Story Submission Sheet
• Idea: the storyline• Multimedia: the elements• Timeline: when to expect it• Misc.: what we can do to help
Customer Content• Reach out to Customer
– For Permission– Guest Blog Post Opportunities
Examples• Pictures (Top Right)• Video (Bottom Right)
Blog: Content Generation
Blog: Content Sharing
• Our Digital Presence Enables Us to Broadcast Our Story to Millions
• Once a Particular Story is Crafted and Sent Through Corporate Accounts, it is then Shared by Others, to Others (Domino Effect)
• Media Sees the Initial Story, or the Buzz Surrounding it, and Covers our Story
• What this looks like…
Case Studies
• Captain Compassion• Flight 812
Captain Compassion• Online Fans begin raving about
“Capt. Compassion” on Jan. 10 after elliott.org blogs about the
experience of a Customer in need.
• By Jan. 11, media calls are pouring in
and the online fans begin to overshadow some of the negativity surrounding Rapid Rewards.
• Themes of “doing the right thing” and
“empowering Employees” stood out.
Captain Compassion• 139 Broadcast clips• 71 Print and Online news clips• 1,780 Blog clips• 2,925 Tweets• 1,132 Facebook mentions
– To put the social media activity into perspective, the Kevin Smith situation resulted in more than 27,000 social media mentions and more than 3,400 comments to the Nuts Blog - compared RR 2.0 which has 2,400 social media mentions and 250 comments on the Nuts blog).
SWA Flight 812: Timeline of Events
Picture Tweeted from @BluestMuse Views: 20,233 as of 4PM CT 4/2/11
6:30pm Incident occurs onboard Flight 8126:39 @BlueStMuse sends out first tweet6:58 Dispatch ENS message is sent out7:04 CBS 13 (Sacramento) Posts First Story7:05 KTXL and CBS 13 (Sacramento) begin
reaching out to @BlueStMuse7:22 @BreakingNews sends first tweet:
Southwest flight from Phoenix to Sacramento makes emergency landing in Ariz. after rapid cabin decompression CBS 13 http://bit.ly/gTr3rC7:40 HECC is activated7:45 Chatter across news outlets heightens8:19 First Flight 812 Update Posts on Nuts8:23 @SouthwestAir sends first tweet:
Southwest Airlines responds to loss of pressurization event on flight from PHX to SMF: http://cot.ag/dHFVpJ8:28 Airliners.net & FlyerTalk threads begin8:44 SWALife Update #1 PostsOvernight Steady flow of chatter, mostly nuts and bolts, praise
for SWA crew
Background:Flight 812 left from PHX bound for SMF, carrying 118 passengers. A short time into the flight, a loud explosion was heard, leaving a 3 ft. hole in the fuselage over Row 11. The plane diverted safely to a military airfield in Yuma, AZ.
Morning News Round-Up
• Picked up by all major networks• Calm demeanor of @BlueStMuse greatly helped shape the discussion
FOX: Fuselage Rupture, Hole Ripped in Plane's Roof Force Emergency LandingCNN: Southwest grounds 79 planesMSNBC: Southwest grounds 79 jets after hole mid-flight
Conclusions and Questions?
Emerging Media Team
• Consists of 8 People• 3 People Responsible for 1 Channel Each• 1 Person to Oversee (Brandy)• How the Rest Shakes Out:
– Facebook (Laurel)– Twitter (Christi)– Nuts About Southwest Blog (Brooks)– 4 Customer Relations Representatives
A Typical Day
• Doesn’t Exist, But… Day-to-Day Duties Include:– Daily Social Media Newsletter to Comm. Dept.– Daily Management/Editorial Process of Blog Team– Daily Oversight of Station Fan Pages
• Frequent Travel– Supporting Teammates– Seeing Your Ideas Realized in the form of Real-life
Events• Freedom to Come Up With New Ideas
Crafting a Comm. Plan
• Be Creative• Account for EVERYTHING, down to the minute
– Timeline– Available Channels– People involved– Materials Needed
• Develop a Contingency Plan• Don’t be afraid to delegate• Benchmark – Don’t rely on the finish line to measure
your success
