Southwest learning as they go

Something really cool happened today after I posted about Southwest's new blog (yes I know I sound like a giddy 12 year old).

A woman named Angela Vargo, who is part of the team working on the blog at Southwest e-mailed me to address my review of the site.

I am not the only one who blogged about Southwest, so did Josh Hallett, Shel Israel, John Cass and Robert Scoble

I am not sure if Angela or other memebers of the staff contacted the other bloggers, but regardless I wanted to share some of the exchange to give an idea of the enthusiasm, but uncertainty about corporate blogging.

I ended up e-mailing back and forth with Angela most of the day and wanted to share some of her thoughts and mine.

Angela: we're starting to get some great posts from our pilots, mechanics and flight attendants. They don't spend time in front of computers so it will take them a little bit longer to get into the blogging groove. I am very dedicated to making this blog "real" - I don't want fluff, I'll include negative comments, and I want the public to see us for who we are...if you ever saw our reality show "Airline," you know we don't shy away from controversy.

Me: If you are starting to get some great posts from pilots mechanics and flight attendants, why aren't they up? What is the approval/editing/submission process?

Angela: well..i don't want to throw out too many posts all at once...i have a database building but I've heard it's against "blog policy" to post more than 2 or 3 a week...is that correct?

Me: In my humble opinion the important thing is that you post with consistency. Readers will come to expect a cetain regularity and will want it to continue.

I don't know where you heard the 2 or 3 times a week thing! In fact, many of the most popular blogs post several times a day, and several people would argue that frequent posting is a great way to build readership as some posts will be more popular than others and appeal to different people. The biggest constraint to posting frequency is time and effort, something that you are able to counter by having multiple authors.

Bottom line: It is all about content and having something relevant to say. If you have that, there is likely no benefit to holding it.

Angela: (Gave me the heads up on a post from an engineer)

Me: One more tip - I understand time is an issue, and we all have jobs to do aside from blogging, but you might want to encourage you bloggers - if they don't already - to get out and read and post on other blogs. In the ideal world, blogging is about conversations, and people are sometimes going to talk about you, without talking to you... Are you guys running all this in-house or do you have some third-party support?

Angela: The blog was created by the very talented RD2 (link to them on the bottom of our blog) but it is managed in-house. As far as "moderation" is concerned, it's only to weed out the weird and profane..i.e., a viagra ad and a post that strung the F word together 5 times. I'm sorry, but that's not part of the "conversation" - that's just stupid and we don't want it on our blog. We've posted plenty of negative comments already today and people are clearly "conversing" back and forth.

As far as our bloggers are concerned, I agree completely and I think we're opening up a whole new world to them...to all of our Employees actually...they were just introduced to the blog this week and are very supportive and excited.

Me: It sounds like you are doing a great job over there. People always tell me they are scared to get involved in blogs because they don't know anything, and I always respond, "No one does, you learn by doing."

That is a scary thought for corporations, but I think it is a great way for companies and employees to learn about themselves and their customers.

Angela: it's a bit scary but the benefits way outweigh any trepidation...I'm so humbled watching our Employees converse with our Customers online...what a wonderful tool this is. As Mastercard would say, "Priceless."  

Me: giving her a friendly heads up on some criticism I had seen...

On a teleconference a month ago, Michael Wiley of GM mentioned that they compile reports about the trends of comments and then they can address them as a group. Something like a post that begins, "A lot of customers have mentioned..." Also, they forward some customer complaints to customer service for follow-up.

In the end, you can't satisfy all of the people all of the time, but you should try to give them a reason.

Conclusion:  Is Southwest doing everything right? Probably not just yet. They need to try to have authors respond to comments more and be more willing to discuss the issues customers care about.

 

Are they moving in the right direction? I think so. Granted, Angela could have just been feeding me PR bull, but it seems to me they genuinely want to use this medium as it should be - to open up dialogue.

Lots of PR bloggers complain about the lack of big time companies with public facing blogs, so it seems a little disingenious to bit their toes as soon as they dip them in the water. I was glad to see most criticism tempered by some version of the phrase, "I would like to see..."

I say let's us give the blog some time and see how it develops.

Lastly, let us remember: It is the airline consumers who will determine whether this blog is a worthwhile effort, not a bunch of new media people sitting behind a keyboard.

Comments

[Maria Palma]

It'll be interesting to see where Southwest goes with their blog. Looking forward to reading the posts about people on the frontline - those who really spend time with the customers. I'm sure they have many stories to share :)

I like that Southwest is leading the pack in terms of communicating and interacting with their customers. Their blog is a great way to do this...

[Shel Israel]

You are not alone. Angela seems to have been busy with email today. This is the third time that I have criticized a large company where a really encouraging conversation has started in email. In the previous cases, it did not reult in a better business blog. Maybe Southwest will be different. Maybe not.

[Jeffrey Treem]

Maria,

I agree, the stories from the front line will be the most interesting. After all, I don't interact with the marketing department when I fly.

Shel,

I appreciate your insight given you have been through this before. I agree the true test of Southwest isn't that they are monitoring cirticism of their blog, it is whether they actually listen to that criticism and do something about it.

I'm willing to give them a little time to see if the personality of the blog is able to match the personality we see when we fly. Let's hope Angela is good on her word.

-Jeff

[eric]

Jeffrey, thanks for posting this conversation. It just reinforces my opinion of Southwest, and shows that they do mean to 'do it right'. The volume of entries on the blog so far seems fine, and it's a good mix of personal and professional comments.

From what I've seen so far, Angela and the rest of the Southwest crew have the right idea.

[Angela Vargo]

Hi Jeff -

As a result of this I am actively recruiting more frontline Employees to blog for us. I think I originally thought people would want to hear more from our executives as opposed to our frontline. Our consultant, Andy Lark, has also been encouraging more "real" conversation with our frontline workers and I'm moving that direction as quickly as possible. Thanks for taking the time to converse with me...I'm not good at the PR bull...I guess that's why I love the blog concept so much.