#17 imu: social media for big businesses (gf302)
TRANSCRIPT
Social Media for Big Businesses (GF302)
Professor: Paula Berg, Southwest Airlines,Linhart PR
Nuts About Online Communication
Who remembers Airline?
• A virtual focus group
• A place to make and break news
• A place to tell “the rest of the story”
• An incubator for new ideas
• A platform for our Employees to share industry knowledge
• A great resource for SEO
Nuts About Southwest launched April 2006
Ana Schwager
Angela Vargo
Ashley Rogers
Bert Stevens
Beverly Behrens
Bill Owen
Bob Hurst
Brian Lusk
Carole Adams
Casey Welch
Christi Day
David Evans, Jr.
Dawn Foster
Edward Shlelswell-White
Fred Taylor
Gordon Guillory
Hollee Ford
Jeff Lamb
30+ EMPLOYEE BLOGGERS
A mix of Frontline and behind-the-scenes Employees.
3 Guidelines:
• Write when you feel like it
• Write what you’re passionate about
• Make it personal
VIDEO BLOG
FLICKR FEED
NEWS FEED
RATINGOPPORTUNITIES
PERSONALIZATIONOPTIONS
ORIGINAL BLOG
READER POLLS
OFFICIAL PHOTO AND VIDEO GALLERIES
USER LOGINAND PROFILES
SHARINGFEATURES
PODCASTSLINKS TO SWA COMMUNITIES
May 5, 2008 we launched Blog 2.0
Within months of launching the new site:
• Visits up 25%• Page Views up 40%• Visitors staying 26% longer
“Anchor of our social media efforts”
Nuts About Southwest 2.0 launched May 2008
How do we manage it all?
“CHANNEL OWNERS”
Where are our Customers? Not just on our blog.
CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY: Open Season on Assigned Seating
• Announced assigned seating test with CEO blog post• Received ~1000 comments• Most customers said “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” • Influenced executives & internal debate• VIRTUAL FOCUS GROUP
CASE STUDY: Tough Customer Issue
• We were able to gauge public sentiment
• By posting negative comments, our blog earned credibility/trust
• Missed opportunity to lead the conversation by not stating our position clearly and presenting the facts as we knew them
• Let the conversation go on for far to long with out participating
CASE STUDY: Too Pretty to Fly
• Media saying: Customers “banned for life” because they were “too pretty”
• Joke or serious threat to reputation?• We needed to communicate directly with our Customers via:
1. Online spokespeople 2. Official Statement3. YouTube video
RECEIVED TREMENDOUS SUPPORT FROM BLOGGERS
“Cool… a spokesperson who speaks like a person. Go figure…”
Comment by Leviticus — 2/25/2008 @ 12:35 pm
“I must admit, I’m VERY impressed… Someone from SWA coming her to lay out their
side? Next time I have a flight to take, I’ll have to make sure to make at least part of
the trip via your airlines…”
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/25/2008 @ 10:08 pm
“I too am impressed by SWA’s response. The lawyerly output of most corporations in
response to potentially embarrassing events almost universally prevents this kind of
interaction. When I say almost always, I think that this is the first and only time I’ve
been witness to such a response. Amazing.
Comment by j.pickens — 2/25/2008 @ 10:24 pm
Total views: ~250,000
#8 most viewed video of the day #32 most discussed video of the day
#86 most views of the week
TOP VIEWED VIDEO
Following the Domino’s Pizza incident, our video response was cited as a great example of a corporate response to an online crisis.
CASE STUDY:FAA Fines SWA For Missed Inspections
On March 6, 2008, the FAA levied a $10.2 million fine against Southwest Airlines for alleged missed aircraft inspections, sparking what was arguably the biggest threat to our airline and our reputation in our 37 year history.
Over the following eight days, we posted a total of five posts:
Title Date Time Comments
We Take Safety Seriously March 6, 2008 10:36pm 180
Southwest Airlines’ CEO Appears on CNN March 7, 2008 11:33am 68
Southwest Airlines Responds To Preliminary Findings of Internal Investigation
March 11, 2008 3:27pm 73
Southwest Airlines Continues Internal Audit March 12, 2008 2:12pm 90
ABC’s Nightline Features Southwest Airlines March 13, 2008 8:36am 12
The posts generated approximately 450 cumulative comments, the majority of which were negative.
“You must need nerves of steel to work in Southwest Airlines Communication department right now. Once you mount the corporate-blogging horse there's no getting off it again. And Southwest is learning enough about what can then happen to write the ultimate book on the subject. Yesterday they finally decided there was no choice but to temporarily ground 44 of their Boeing 737s - including 38 taken straight off the line - affected by the safety allegations that have blown up around them. At time of writing they have 17 comments in response to the 260 they received on their earlier posts on the issue. The 17 are markedly more negative than positive - although the hard core of support is indicative of a degree of loyalty that many other companies would struggle to secure. Obviously this is not going to go away easily. So will Southwest have regrets over the blog? I'm pretty sure that they won't. On balance it's been a great tool for them in this horrendous situation. Most importantly of all, it's let their supporters declare their positive views in public - something that never really happens with conventional media coverage because nobody's out looking for those people.”
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Bad PR Leaves One Reputation Grounded While Another One SoarsBY Katie Paine
So, when troubles with the FAA began, information was quickly posted on the blog, and all of Southwest founder Herb Kelleher’s statement to Congress was made available there as well. Customers weighed in—and many of them were not happy with the situation—but it was all out there for the world to see.
In contrast, American Airlines launched its blog, AAConversation.com…but it is clearly designed to make sure that their side of the story got out there, and therein lies the difference. Southwest wanted to hear what its customers had to say, American wanted to tell its side of the story.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Timely content + HOT issues =
1. Influence search 2. Draw readers to our sight 3. Lead discussions
CASE STUDY: THE NEW FACE OF FACEBOOK
Challenge: In 1Q Facebook redesigned their platform, opening the door for more engagement and personal interaction with “Fans” via real-time status updates.
Response: We began updating our “status” regularly with a mix of Marketing messages, news updates, SWA FUN, and operational updates.
Results: Facebook users were initially surprised - and some annoyed – with the change. Our numbers waivered as we boiled down to the brand champions that wanted to receive our messages. Initial loss of followers has now been replaced with growing audience – approximately 100 new “Fans” join our Facebook group each day.
1,000,000+
“It’s entirely possible that three to four years from now, we’ll have moved on. But the key elements of the Twitter platform will persevere. Every major channel of information will be Twitterfied.”
Source: Time Magazine
Twitter-maniaTwitter has forever changed the face of communication
Southwest has been a member since July 07
Currently has ~1,000,000 followers
JULY 2009 - SOCIAL MEDIA/PR DRIVEN FARE SALE LED TO OUR HIGHEST TRAFFIC AND SALES DAY IN OUR HISTORY
OCTOBER 2009 – DID IT AGAIN!
=+
June 2007
Most Viewed Videos on Our Channel
Southwest Airlines YouTube Channel
SWA uses our YouTube channel and videos to help communicate within our Customer Service channels.
Southwest Airlines YouTube Channel
@jkrums There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.
3:26 Incident occurs
3:36 10 minutes later, a passenger on the rescue ferry Twitters from his iPhone the first known photo of the incident. 34 minutes later, MSNBC interviews him as a witness.
3:36 Airliners.net posts its first thread on incident
3:41 FlyerTalk.com posts its first thread on the incident
3:46 Airline Pilots Central Forum posts its first thread on the incident
3:49 WSJ Blog posts its first story: “US Airways Plane Crashes in New York’s Hudson River”
3:52 A WSJ e-mail alert is issued to subscribers
4:00 Story appears on Google News
4:03 AP story begins to appears on blogs and websites
4:04 First person to Tweet the story is interviewed on MSNBC as witness
4:12 US Airways issues 1st statement
4:15 9 of the 10 most discussed topics on Twitter are about the incident
4:30 @SouthwestAir (Southwest’s Twitter profile) posts the following message: Our friends @USAir and their Customers are in our thoughts this afternoon
4:34 Someone Tweets that Wikipedia has an entry on the crash before any information is available on usairways.com.
4:40 Twitterers are anticipating the US Airways Press Conference
4:49 US Airways issues 2nd statement
4:56 Someone creates a Twitter profile titled “@Hudsoncrash” to share news
4:59 @SkyTalk (The Star-Telegram Twitter profile) Tweets the link to the flight log
5:00 USAirways creates its first Twitter account (@USAirways)
5:20 People begin following the newly created US Airways twitter account. They currently have 217 followers. At the time, we had 8,500 followers.
CRISIS: US Airways Incident Within 10 minutes of the aircraft touching the water, a witness generated photo
and headline was circulating on Twitter
5:30p Incident Occurs
5:59p
6:01p
Dispatch ENS message is sent
PR Team begins gathering information for incoming media calls
6:07p West Virginia Gazette post story and sends first Tweet
6:08p Airliners.net post thread
6:17p6:30p
AP story hits the wireSouthwest holding official statement and addressing media one-on-one.
6:43p A Customer onboard the flight takes a photo of the hole that is then distributed on the web via Twitter.
6:58p Flyertalk posts a thread with link to broadcast coverage.
8:10p Southwest post first official statement on Twitter as issue begins to see traction. SWA Flight 2294 diverted safely to Charston, WV. Great work by Crew and Customers onboard. Everyone safe #southwest
8:25p Official statement posted to Nuts About Southwest and linked to via Twitter.
8:42p First comment appears on the blog asking for reassurances from Southwest
8:00a Today Show features Customer photos from web
9:20a Southwest issues update via Twitter: Flight 2294 UPDATE: We are refunding the RT fare for Customers on 2294 last night. All 727-300’s inspected w/o findings.
9:30a The Customer photo online has been viewed more than 6000 times on Twitpic alone and has been broadcast on multiple TV and online news sites.
10:45a Customer video of the events appears online.
12:00p Wikipedia has been updated to reflect the events.First photo appears on Twitter 1 hour and 3 minutes after event.
FLT 2294
Measurement – Trying to make sense of it all
Every Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year
Reading between the numbers - tell the story
Capture the ah-ha moments
Quarterly Reporting
ROI
Numbers
2-3 Case Studies
Cost can be small
Take baby steps
What’s the cost of not participating
MEASUREMENT & REPORTING
What are you trying to prove? The answer will change over time. Your reports should too.
Who cares? Get your information to the right people.
It’s not all about the numbers! Read between the numbers to spot trends and “ah-ha moments”
Focus on what you’ve got, not what you think you want. What are fans telling you?
Report like a weather man. Who cares what the weather was yesterday? Report for tomorrow.
Do it yourself. Tools are a supplement. They can’t predict the future. Use common sense and gut instincts.
Do PR for your efforts. Don’t just tell the story…sell the story.
Report your screw ups. Decide how you are going to handle similar situations in the future.
Reporting for yourself. If you’re not dazzled, don’t expect anyone else to be.
1. Don’t be afraid to join conversations2. Make it personal3. Engage the positive people first 4. Establish channels before a crisis5. Act fast6. Don’t rely on the numbers alone 7. Get an executive sponsor8. Educate your employees and leaders9. Live and breathe social media10. Have fun – this is not a burden, it is a gift
MY KEY TAKE AWAYS
