Southwest Airlines launched its blog "Nuts About Southwest" in 2006 to provide customers a look inside the company's culture and operations. The blog now serves as a virtual focus group, place to share news and stories, and platform for employees to connect with customers. It features over 30 employee bloggers and was named the best blog by PR News in 2007 and 2008. Southwest also communicates with customers through social media like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to stay connected with changing technologies and reach broader audiences. The company measures engagement across channels and uses case studies to understand how content impacts search optimization and sentiment.

1. Southwest Airlines
Nuts About Online Communication

2. Who remembers Airline?

3. Nuts About Southwest launched April 2006
Nuts About Southwest was originally launched
as a means of giving our Customers a look inside
the Culture and operations of Southwest Airlines
and allowing them to interact and build personal
relationships with our Employees.
Now serves as:
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 and connect with
Customers
a resource for SEO - Google Juice
In October 2007, our site was named Best Blog
for 2008 by PR News.

4. Ana Schwager
Angela Vargo
30+ EMPLOYEE BLOGGERS
Ashley Rogers
Bert Stevens Nuts About Southwest features more than
30 Employee bloggers that represent a mix
Beverly Behrens
of Frontline and behind-the-scenes
Bill Owen Employees including Mechanics, Customer
Service Agents, Schedule Planners,
Bob Hurst Executives, Marketing Representatives,
Flight Attendants, Pilots, and more.
Brian Lusk
Carole Adams
Each Employee blogger brings to the table a
Casey Welch unique voice, perspective, and
personality to share with our Customers.
Christi Day
David Evans, Jr. We know that our People are our greatest
Dawn Foster asset. The blog gives our Employees a
platform to share their industry knowledge,
Edward Shlelswell-White exchange personal stories, and really
connect our Customers to the Southwest
Fred Taylor Culture we live and experience everyday.
Gordon Guillory
Hollee Ford
Jeff Lamb

5. Where are our Customers? Not just on our blog.
Our Customers are communicating with
us through a number of different online
channels.
Using these tools allow s us to:
Stay on top of communication
technology
Communicate directly with our
Customers in the formats they prefer
Reach a broader audience

6. Also active on aviation blogs & forums

7. May 5, 2008 w e launched Blog 2.0
USER LOGIN
PERSONALIZATION AND PROFILES
OPTIONS
ORIGINAL BLOG
FLICKR FEED
READER POLLS
VIDEO BLOG
SHARING
FEATURES
OFFICIAL PHOTO
AND VIDEO
GALLERIES NEWS FEED
PODCASTS
LINKS TO SWA
COMMUNITIES
RATING
OPPORT UNITIES

8. Nuts About Southwest 2.0 launched May 2008
Within months of launching the
new site:
Visits up 25%
Page Views up 40%
Visitors staying 26% longer
In October, our site was named Best
Blog for 2008 by PR News (second
year in a row).

9. CASE STUDIES
1. To Assign or Not To Assign
2. A Story with Legs
3. Too Pretty to Fly
4. The FAA Allegations
5. SI One
6. US Airways Hudson River Incident
7. Loves vs. Sucks
8. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook

10. CASE STUDY: Open Season on Assigned Seating
Announced Assigned Seating test with CEO blog post
Received 700 comments
Most Customers said If it ain t broke, don t fix it, I love your open
seating policy, please don t change.
Influenced executives and internal debate
VIRTUAL FOCUS GROUP

11. CASE STUDY: A Story with Legs
Six months after travel ing with us, story
appears in the San Diego Union Tribune and
Customer appears on Today Show
Blog immediately flooded with comments
The GOOD news
We were able to gauge public sentiment
By posting negative comments , our blog
earned credibility
The BAD news
Missed opportuni ty by not stating our
position clearly and presenting the facts as
we knew them
Let the conversation go on for far to l ong with
out participating

12. CASE STUDY: Too Pretty to Fly
Customers denied boarding
Claimed it was because of their looks
Mainstream media was covering only one side of the story
Learned from our previous experience that we needed to
communicate directly with our Customers via:
1. Online spokespeople
2. Official Statement
3. YouTube video

13. RECEIVED TREMENDOUS
SUPPORT FROM BLOGGERS
1. Cool a spokesper son who speaks like a person. Go figure
Comment by Leviticus 2/25/2008 @ 12:35 pm
2. Thanks for your response, Ms. Berg. I ve posted most of the Southwest stor ies here. I
notice them because my West Texas family regularly (and happily) flies Southwest
Airlines, so I m interested in what Southwest does.
Comment by DRJ 2/25/2008 @ 12:40 pm
3. Ms. Berg, if I weren t already a frequent flyer of Southwest, I would be now simply based
on your informative and thoughtful response. Not many companies would take the time,
nor feel the need to reassure customers. Kudos.
Comment by Dana 2/25/2008 @ 1:17 pm
4. 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
5. 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
6. Paula, Patterico seems to have turned off trackbacks, but I wanted you to see my
reaction to your participation in this comment thread. As someone who has dealt with
blogs criticizing my own company, I was impressed with your response.
Comment by Doc Rampage 2/26/2008 @ 3:32 am

14. TOP VIEWED VIDEO
Total views: 250,000
#8 most viewed video of the day
#32 most discussed video of the day
#86 most views of the week
With the recent Domino s Pizza incident, the video response has been cited
as a great example of a corporate response to an online crisis.

15. 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 March 11, 2008 3:27pm 73
Internal Investigation
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.

16. 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 Southwes t 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
temporari ly 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 mark edly 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. Barring new dev elopments,
this may be the nadi r for Southwes t in this saga, now it's going to be
interesting to see how they use the blog to repai r the inevitable damage.
----

17. Bad PR Leaves One Reputati on
Grounded Whi le Another One Soars
BY Katie Paine
In contrast, American
Airlines launched its
blog,
AAConversation.com
So, when troubles w ith the FAA but it is clearly designed
began, information was quickly to make sure that their
posted on the blog, and all of side of the story got out
Southw est founder Herb there, and therein lies the
Kelleher s statement to difference. Southw est
Congress was made available wanted to hear w hat its
there as well. Customers customers had to say,
weighed in and many of them American w anted to tell
were not happy with the its side of the story.
situation but it was all out there
for the world to see.

18. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Ø Southwest + Hawaii: When Aloha Airlines
closed its doors, the number of online
searches for Southwest and Hawaii spiked as
Customers scrambled to rebook their Hawaii
OUR BLOG CONTENT IS INCREASING OUR travel and seek some reassurances for future
travel. Southwest was prepared with an
ONLINE SEARCHABI LITY (aka Google Juice ) informative post from Schedule Planner Bill
Owen. The post received more than 10,000
views, helped us capture and address
By providing timely and relevant content Customer concerns, and continues to serve
as an "expert resource" for journalist seeking
particularly around HOT issues we are able information on the subject.
to:
Ø Southwest + Baggage: With the recent
1. Influence search changes to industry baggage policies and the
addition of unwelcome fees, sear ches for
2. Draw readers to our sight Southwest Baggage, Southwest Baggage
3. Lead discussions restrictions, and the like have increased. As a
result, our baggage posts conti nue to be
among the top-viewed content on the site
even entries and videos that were posted last
year allowing us to further reinforce our
points-of-difference messages with
unique/visual content.

19. Twitter

20. Twitter-mania
Twitter is changing the face of communicat ion
Ø Southwest has been a member since July 07
Ø We currently have >200,000 followers
Ø 58 percent increase in 1Q09.
PC Mag listed Southwest Airlines among
10 Corporate Twitter Accounts Worth
Following.
According to Mashable.com's Top 40 list
of Twitter brands, SWA is recognized for its
ability to use the tool to communicate with
its audience and disseminate information.

21. Twitter-mania
Within 10 minutes of the
aircraft touching the water,
a witness generated photo
and headline was
circulating on Twitter
Case Study: US Airways Incident
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 W SJ Blog posts its first story: US Airways Plane Crashes in New York s Hudson
River
3:52 A W SJ 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 W ikipedia 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
@jkrums There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm 5:00 USAirways creates its first Twitter account (@USAirways)
on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy. 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.

22. CASE STUDY: LOVES v. SUCKS
Just for fun, we us ed the keywords Southwest Airlines , Love or LUV , and
Sucks or Sux to determi ne the percentages of tweets expressing like and
dislike for Southwes t Airlines. While this doesn t capture the complete sentiment
of our Customers, it is a snapshot of the general tone of Tweets we receive daily.
We focus the majority of our
energy on the positive by
engaging and building
relationships with Customers.
We also monitor negative
conversations and engage when
appropriate.

23. + =
The Rapping Flight Attendant has appeared on Leno, Oprah, and
numerous other TV and radio programs .

24. CASE STUDY: EVOLUT ION OF A YOUTUBE VIDEO
(not the Rapping Flight Attendant)
not
JANUARY 2009 - Video of Flight Attendant singing
is loaded onto YouTube. For three months, the vi deo sits on
YouTube with little traction.
MARCH 2009 Our Rapping Flight Attendant hits
the scene, sending Customers searching for SWA Inflight
entertainment online. After Customers watch the video of the
Rapping Flight Attendant, many continue to search for similar
material.
APRIL 2009 Our singing Flight Attendant is among
our top viewed videos with nearly 100,000 views!

25. 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.

26. Measurement Trying to make sense of it all
l Every Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year
l Reading between the numbers to tell the story
l Capturing the ah-ha moments
Quarterly Reporting
l Numbers
l 2-3 Case Studies
ROI
l Cost can be small
l Take baby steps
l What s the cost of not participating

27. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES IS TAKING OVER THE
INTERNET - Jaunted.com
PRWeek recently recognized
Southwest airlines among five
companies that get social media.
For the second year in a row, Nuts
About Southwest was named
Best Blog by PR News.

28. Our Emerging Media Team
Formed in Fall 2008
7 person team
Together, we have more than 60
years of Southwest Airlines
experience in the fields of Ramp,
Reservations, Provisioning,
Inflight, Customer Service,
Customer Relations, Employee
Communication, Public Relations,
Executive Communication,
Technology and Emerging Media.

29. TAKE AWAYS
1. Establish channels bef ore a crisis
Dabble: Blogs, YouTube, Facebook
Don t rely on the numbers
Build Relationships
2. Don t be afraid to join the conversat ion
Be gracious, be honest, be real
Speak the language of your audience
Have a thick skin
3. Act fast
Doesn t have to be perfect
Set the tone for the conversation
Harder to repair a damaged reputation than maintain a good one
4. Build a strong team
Social media takes time, passion, and guts
Need executive sponsor
Look outside of your department for help

30. ARE YOU NUTS?
Visit Nuts About Southwest
www.blogsouthw est.com
Paula.Berg@w nco.com
@paulaberg
@southw estair

31. LIFT - http://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=ZqSwxzdAKHs
Too Pretty to Fl y - http://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=Td5O32aXZaY
Rapping Flight Attendant - http://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=ivjybzdXVmI
Dominos - http://www.airchecknews.com/video/4-21-09_abc-
network_1030pm -nightline_damage-control.wmv
My Old Man in Mx - http://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=IpOSW n4Hpmg
Emerging Media Team - http://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=6T3-
cVkRDSQ&feature=c hannel_page