Buzz Marketing with Blogs: Southwest Gets Bloggy

Southwest Gets Bloggy

Southwest’s Nuts About Southwest blog launched April 21, 2006.

Nuts about Southwest is our new blog all about our Employees, Customers, airplanes, and airports. We really are Nuts about Southwest, and we hope that you, our Customers, will share that passion by posting your own comments at http://www.blogsouthwest.com ...Our goal is for this blog to go beyond the facts and numbers to give you insight into our fantastic Employees—what motivates them, how they do their jobs, and a look into the way they serve you, our Customers.

Brian Lusk, Manager of Customer Communication and Corporate Editor, wrote the first post, and promises more in the future from “Pilots; Flight Attendants; Airport Employees; Mechanics; folks from our Marketing, Schedule Planning, Properties, People and Leadership, and Executive Office Departments.”

The first few posts area mix of casually written Southwest kudos and recognition, and personal anecdotes—seems like a good recipe for holding the reader’s interest. Future promised features are Flickr feeds, customer letters, and insider tips from Robert Scoble.

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 05/04 at 10:29 AM • Blogs

Comments

Susannah,

I just found your blog yesterday and I love it.

I’m currently researching how to launch a blog campaign for my company, LearningChange, as a way to build up a customer and B2B relations base. So this blog has been a huge find for me. Thank you.

About the Southwest blog, what do you think the motivations are behind it?

I’m pretty sure anyone interested in flying knows who Southwest is and probably won’t use the company or not based on it having a blog.

So do you think the motivations are to build internal relations? As an employee, it would be pretty cool to know the company is interested enough in what you want to say to post it in a company blog.

Just wondering.

Posted by Owen Lystrup on 05/24/06 at 03:44 PM
The Southwest Blog seems to be off to a great start, one month into things. It looks like they’re doing a good job publishing a mix of corporate profile info, current related news, and general PR.

Their own employees would likely find some of this interesting. It’s a good way to keep everyone on message.

Posted by Ed Kohler on 05/26/06 at 08:48 AM
Hello - I am Southwest’s blog administrator and I wanted to answer Owen’s question about “why the Southwest blog.” Southwest has always been a company of People and our culture is one of openess and transparency. The blog is simply an extension of our brand - a way to join in on the online conversation and share info and stories back and forth with our Customers. We are so thrilled to see the results - even this early in. People love corresponding with us and our Employees are encouraged to respond back - which builds an informal relationship and breaks down the “big bad corporation” stereotype that so many feel towards companies today...especially airlines. I can’t stress to you enough how valuable this simple and cost efficient communication mechanism is. We’re thrilled to be a part of the blogosphere and plan on sticking around for a very long time.

Posted by Angela Vargo on 06/06/06 at 02:08 PM
I posted about Southwest’s corporate blog a few days ago and I agree with the favorable reviews here. And Angela is doing a great job of getting out there and touching base with those who blog about it!

Posted by Easton Ellsworth on 07/11/06 at 06:13 AM