For the monthly Austin AMA Power Lunch series, marketers from all over Austin converged on the Hilton to hear the lessons Southwest Airlines had learned from their social media experiences. The speaker of the hour was Paula Berg, the Manager of Emerging Media for Southwest Airlines. In Paula’s mostly Social Media presentation, she shared where they’ve been, where they’re going, their biggest successes, and their biggest failures. Here are some of the key take-aways: Social Media can help you reach a new demographic. The Nuts About Southwest blog started as a replacement for A&E’s Airline. The show allowed Southwest to reach a different demographic by giving customers an inside look at their culture. All you need to know is who you want to target and where they hang out. It’s OK to not have a strategy as long as you have a strategy?!? Paula mentioned she didn’t have a strategy when they started the blog, but I think she was just being modest. The strategy, or maybe we should call it a goal, was to give customers an inside look at Southwest. What they didn’t anticipate was all the things the blog would become. Social Media is so new, don’t try and put too narrow a scope on your strategy. It’s very much like a box of chocolates… It’s good to have a presence in Social Media before you have a crisis. Blogs in response to bad press are not seen as authentic. You need to create conversations using Social Media before it’s too late. Immediate, passionate feedback exists at no cost. Southwest was able to avoid using too much ink when customers print boarding passes, and discovered the real reason people don’t like their open seating policy. Paula has been able to create an open relationship with customers where they offer feedback because they know they will be heard. You need thick skin. Criticism, warranted or not, hurts. The lesson is to be prepared to take the good with the bad. When the media won’t listen, take your message directly to the people. Paula and her team “fought fire with fire” when responding to a couple of young ladies claiming they were treated unfairly because of their good looks. Since the media was only interested in one side of the story, Southwest created a video response that went viral. The only videos viewed more that week were of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Listen. Some of the most valuable information Paula received was from listening to what people where saying- especially on Twitter. Southwest first discovered their “rapping flight attendant” through a twitter post. It’s amazing to think you might learn something about your own company reading your Twitter feed! Never stop the conversation. When people comment on your blog posts, respond. This goes right along with listening. Social Media is a two way street. Don’t ignore people when they talk to you. Social Media causes sleeplessness. Someone asked Paula what the ROI is for Southwest’s Social Media efforts. From Southwest’s point of view, it is huge. The only cost for them was paying Paula, and, over the past three years, she has worked many hours of free overtime. Social Media never sleeps, and neither does Paula. If you decide to immerse yourself this world, be ready with a case of red bull and a trusty mobile device. Interested in more marketing programs and networking? Visit the Austin American Marketing Association website (www.austinama.org) for coming events and the AMA blog (www.austinama.org/blog) to be a part of the conversation.

1. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES NUTS ABOUT COMMUNICATION Online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsQ8eLXUgs0

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

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

12. RECEIVED TREMENDOUS SUPPORT FROM BLOGGERS From http://patterico.com/2008/02/24/beauty-and-the-luv-police/ 1. Cool… a spokesperson 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 stories 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

13. 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

14. 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 : The posts generated approximately 450 cumulative comments , the majority of which were negative . 12 8:36am March 13, 2008 ABC’s Nightline Features Southwest Airlines 90 2:12pm March 12, 2008 Southwest Airlines Continues Internal Audit 73 3:27pm March 11, 2008 Southwest Airlines Responds To Preliminary Findings of Internal Investigation 68 11:33am March 7, 2008 Southwest Airlines’ CEO Appears on CNN 180 10:36pm March 6, 2008 We Take Safety Seriously Comments Time Date Title

16. Bad PR Leaves One Reputation Grounded While Another One Soars BY 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.

17. Twitter

19. Twitter-mania @ jkrums There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy. Case Study: US Airways Incident Within 10 minutes of the aircraft touching the water, a witness generated photo and headline was circulating on Twitter People begin following the newly created US Airways twitter account. They currently have 217 followers. At the time, we had 8,500 followers. 5:20 USAirways creates its first Twitter account (@USAirways) 5:00 @SkyTalk (The Star-Telegram Twitter profile) Tweets the link to the flight log 4:59 Someone creates a Twitter profile titled “@Hudsoncrash” to share news 4:56 US Airways issues 2 nd statement 4:49 Twitterers are anticipating the US Airways Press Conference 4:40 Someone Tweets that Wikipedia has an entry on the crash before any information is available on usairways.com. 4:34 @SouthwestAir (Southwest’s Twitter profile) posts the following message: Our friends @ USAir and their Customers are in our thoughts this afternoon 4:30 9 of the 10 most discussed topics on Twitter are about the incident 4:15 US Airways issues 1 st statement 4:12 First person to Tweet the story is interviewed on MSNBC as witness 4:04 AP story begins to appears on blogs and websites 4:03 Story appears on Google News 4:00 A WSJ e-mail alert is issued to subscribers 3:52 WSJ Blog posts its first story: “US Airways Plane Crashes in New York’s Hudson River” 3:49 Airline Pilots Central Forum posts its first thread on the incident 3:46 FlyerTalk.com posts its first thread on the incident 3:41 Airliners.net posts its first thread on incident 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 Incident occurs 3:26

22. CASE STUDY: EVOLUTION OF A YOUTUBE VIDEO ( not the Rapping Flight Attendant) JANUARY 2009 - Video of our Flight Attendant singing a country song about “No Fees” is loaded onto YouTube. For three months, the video sits on YouTube with little traction. MARCH 2009 – Our “Rapping Flight Attendant” hits the big time, 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. Today, 54% of Country Flight Attendant views originate with Rapping Flight Attendant views. . APRIL 2009 – Our Country Flight Attendant is currently one of our top viewed videos with over 72,000 views!