Corporate Blogging 2.0: Southwest Airlines' Blog Re-launches

Take a look below if you haven't heard about the re-launch of Southwest Airlines' corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest, two years after its April 2006 debut. More here.

This is state of the art use of social media by a big company: a blog, Flickr pics, video, polls, news and more. Note the icons for YouTube, FlickR, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter at the bottom of the page. This multi social media platform approach echoes what Dell is doing on its Community page.

This is exciting. And a refreshing change after the Southwest blog was caught flat-footed in March 2008 following the aircraft inspection crisis and threat of a record fine by the FAA. Kudos to the Southwest blogging team!

Have You Tried Searchme.com? Very Cool

A digital marketing strategist at a Global 100 company just put me onto a new search engine called Searchme.com (yes, these corporate types can be surprisingly plugged in!).

It' s still in beta, so go to http://beta.searchme.com/ and type in your name, company name, brand name, etc. You can choose "all" or ask for results based on advertising & marketing, radio, non-fiction and blogs. I assume they'll be adding more categories.

Up comes a visual "stack" of pages you can click through and mouse over. The results remind me of Apple's Time Machine. Cool, huh?!

And appropriately, the Searchme folks have created a demo video and put it up on YouTube. For those interested in the power of viral video, note that the video has been watched 63,588 times since it was posted to YouTube on March 9, 2008. Here it is:

Q & A With Goddess of Measurement KD Paine

KD Paine is one of the (terrific) speakers we've got lined up for BlogPotomac, Washington DC's premiere social media marketing event coming up on June 13, 2008 (go for it... register here). I snagged her for a quick Q & A to give us a preview of her topic "Measurement and Value."

Note: In keeping with the unconference format (see here and here) of BlogPotomac, KD and the other speakers will be delivering informal presentations - no PowerPoint - with plenty of time for Q&A with attendees.

Debbie: Tell us briefly about your company KD Paine & Partners.

KD: We provide measurement and evaluation of communications programs – including traditional and social media, internal and external programs. We've been doing this stuff for 22 to years, and measuring consumer generated media for 13 years.

We design measurement programs for clients, helping them to define their "dashboards" of things they want to track. We also provide  the human element – working with firms like Buzz Logic to provide human coding in order to get social media to an acceptable accuracy level.. We also provide the so-what – connecting the data to actual business outcomes.

Debbie: You're being called The Queen Of Measurement. But on your Twitter page you say you prefer to be called the Goddess Seshat. Who the heck is that? 

KD: There actually was a goddess of measurement called Seshat - and in this day and age Queen is just a bit too "command and control" as opposed to  a goddess that inspires followers and gives birth to new metrics.

KD Paine... a goddess who inspires followers and gives birth to new metrics.

Debbie: I know you're on the road constantly these days, speaking to audiences both in the U.S. and abroad. What's the single most frequent question you get about measuring the effectiveness of online PR?

KD: What impact does it have on the bottom line. Sure, I can track rank and followers and all kinds of things, but how do I know its worth the effort ?

Debbie: Another BlogPotomac speaker, Kami Watson Huyse, has done a nifty video interview with you where you outline your Super Six Steps to Effective PR Measurement. As BlogPotomac is focused on social media, would you change anything or add to the list?

KD: Not a thing. I think that if everyone started off following those 6 steps, we have a lot more measurement (as opposed to monitoring which is what most people are doing) .

Debbie: Any quick thoughts on some of the new metrics - engagement, participation, velocity, community - being used to measure the impact of social media?

KD: Yes I'm a big believer in measuring engagement but I think it has to go way beyond repeat visits, and sentiment and tonality. I think we have to start asking the customers not just are they engaged but do they trust us, are they committed to a long term relationship, are they satisfied with the relationship. That's why I called my book Measuring Public Relationships.

Why Corporates Should Write Like Bloggers

Seth Godin nails it in a recent post. Short answer: because good blog writing is more engaging and more persuasive than any press release or home page ridden with corporate-speak. I especially like these two tips: use headlines and don't say it all at once. Get the rest on his blog...

1. Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect for engaging busy readers.

2. Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.

3. Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don't have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time...

- Seth Godin (April 7, 2008)

Sun's Tim Bray on the Three Components of a Successful Blog

Just finished participating in Bulldog Reporter's Webinar: Corporate Blogging Update for PR. Fellow panelists were John Earnhardt of Cisco and Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems. Our able moderator Jon Greer kept things moving right along. Fun.

Tim has been "online" since, er, at least 1983. That's 25 years. Here's a Usenet posting dated Aug. 31, 1983 from his blog archive: Doesn't Anyone Out There Read Anymore?

Wow. And I thought I was cool. I've been "online" since about 1992. Put up my first Web site in 1995. Here's a peek at my site in 1996, according to the Way Back Machine. Note: I was primarily a journalist back then, before B-school and marketing.

So it was interesting to see Tim's slides and hear his riff on corporate and employee blogging. Spot on.

According to Tim, the three most important components of a successful blog are: 1. Good writing 2. Interesting person 3. Valuable material.

Best to have all three, he said. Sometimes you can get away with two out of three. Less than that, it won't work.

His slide, below, looked exactly like this. Unadorned. The best PowerPoint style IMHO, if you absolutely have to use it.

Q & A With Dell Chief Blogger Lionel Menchaca

With BlogPotomac coming up in seven weeks [hey, register here], I asked Dell Chief Blogger Lionel Menchaca to tell us a bit more about Direct2Dell and Dell's other community (aka social media) initiatives. Lionel is giving the opening keynote on Friday June 13, 2008.

Note: In keeping with the unconference format (see here and here) of BlogPotomac, Lionel and the other speakers will be delivering informal presentations - no PowerPoint - with plenty of time for Q&A with attendees.

Debbie: Does your Dell business card say "Chief Blogger" on it? Was it your idea to give yourself that title and what, in fact, does it mean?

Lionel: No, because I haven't ordered more cards yet. It will though. It was my idea, and the main reason was to reflect our expansion beyond one centralized blog. We now have blogs in several languages as well as three group blogs: Cloud Computing, Inside IT and Small Business. And more will be coming soon.

As we expand, part of my job is to know what is happening across all of these sites. Ultimately though, my job is to help our customers find the information they're looking for. Sometimes I may point to a discussion that's happening on one of our other blogs. Other times, I may contribute posts on other blogs. The title Chief Blogger seemed to communicate that in a straightforward way, so I went with it.

Debbie: Blogosphere watchers say it took Dell an awfully long time (a year) to start its corporate blog after Jeff Jarvis's Dell Hell blog rant. Tell us briefly how and why Dell's blog got started.

Lionel: Our work in this space began just over two years ago when Michael Dell asked our group to find customers in the blogosphere who were blogging about hardware issues to provide technical support. Several weeks into that process, we shared a broader social media strategy plan with Michael--Direct2Dell was part of that. We launched the blog in July, 2006.

Debbie: You are one of the first companies to publish your blog(s) in languages other than English. Are there plans for more languages? (Note: there is a "global community" section on Dell's Community page.)

Lionel: Yes, we currently also have blogs in Spanish, Chinese and Norwegian. Japanese will be coming soon, and we're planning for more languages beyond that.

Debbie: Real estate on a corporate home page is precious. I see a prominent link to Dell Community (Ideas, Blogs, Forums, Videos) on Dell's home page. Tell us about that.

Lionel: Having a community link on Dell.com is a small part of a bigger long-term strategy to blend community and commerce. For the most part, corporate websites (including Dell.com) are focused largely on e-commerce. Another small step is to incorporate ratings and reviews, which we started last year. We are working on long-term strategies to blend community elements into the commerce side of things. Stay tuned.

Debbie: What has been your most challenging experience so far as Dell Chief Blogger?

Lionel: I would say weathering the negativity storm in the early days of the launch of the blog was probably the toughest. I was prepared for a rough ride because we had been listening for a while before we launched the blog, but that in itself didn't make things easier.

More about BlogPotomac: June 13, 2008 (Falls Church, VA).

Q & A With Dan Beyers of The WashBiz Blog

Hard to believe that BlogPotomac, DC's premiere unconference on social media marketing, is just around the corner (Friday June 13th to be exact).

Washington Post local business editor Dan Beyers took a few minutes to do a quick Q & A about The WashBiz Blog, which he edits, as well as the broader topic of the relationship between old and new media, which he'll be talking about at BlogPotomac.

Q & A with BlogPotomac speaker Dan Beyers

Debbie: What's the role of The WashBiz Blog in the Washington Post's local business coverage?

Dan: The WashBiz Blog aspires to be the Post's main street for news and commentary on local business. We're still very much in our infancy in developing the site, and you'll see enhancements in the weeks and months to come.

For instance, we've recently added weekly online columns by staff writers Tom Heath and Zach Goldfarb, both of which are off to promising starts. I'll be starting a weekly editor's note soon and we have plans for guest bloggers and other new features.

Debbie: How hard was it for you to get the blog started? Was it considered a daring experiment?

Dan: Getting the blog started was a piece of cake. Never in my time at The Post has it been so easy to start something new. Sustaining the blog, developing compelling content that meshes seamlessly with what we print in the newspaper, is another matter.

We've only begun to scratch that itch. And while daring is not an adjective I would use for the blog, we are trying to test a premise here. The Post has successfully launched blogs dealing with national politics, celebrity and technology. Can it do so with a subject like local business? I think so, but it will require we be creative in how we engage readers.

Debbie: The colliding of old and new media is a topic of endless fascination. What's your take on it? 

Dan: At the Post, the issue is hardly old versus new. We have to embrace both. Newspaper readership, though shrinking, is still substantial. Our online business, though growing, is still not as lucrative as the newpaper's. The focus of a lot of my attention these days is navigating the transition, trying to blend both new and old ways of doing things.

Our plans for the Post 200, our annual guide to the region's biggest companies, offer a glimpse of the sorts of things we're trying. In addition to the printed guide that will be distributed with the newspaper, we're building out our 200 company profiles on the Web, adding live news feeds, links to SEC documents, videos when available, and other content.

We're also teaming up with the Greater Washington Board of Trade to host a Post 200 event, featuring Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. as the keynote speaker. The idea is to connect with people in the way they find most comfortable, either through the newspaper, on the Web or in person.

Debbie: How do you foresee social media affecting the Washington Post's coverage of local news in the next year or two?

Dan: Social media is already having an effect. It's a resource for reporters. For instance, our ability to reach people through Facebook was important to our coverage in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. And we're experimenting with social media as a way to reach out to readers, with Facebook apps, with Twitter, with some of our comment functions.

Debbie: How active are you on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Do you find them useful in your role as a Wash Post editor?

Dan: I dabble but so far have not found my killer app. Some story ideas and contacts have flowed through the networks. But it can be very hit or miss. The networks are only as good as the people on them. And the anonymity of people on some networks can be difficult to parse. Are they loyal readers? Spammers? Sometimes it is hard to tell. That said, I do think we ignore such networks at our peril.

Visit BlogPotomac for more information and to register. Dan Beyers will be speaking at the event at 9:35 AM on Friday June 13, 2008 at The State Theater in Falls Church, VA. You can also follow BlogPotomac on Twitter.

It's De Rigueur... You Must Twitter Your New Blog Post

It's the new thing. If you're still not "getting" Twitter, which I wasn't... up until a few weeks ago, wrap your mind around this:

You've lovingly crafted a brilliant blog post. Ping! Your blog alerts Technorati. Ping! Your RSS feed goes out to all who've signed up via a news reader.

Nope. Not enough. The way to get attention for your blog these days is to tweet your new blog post to your "followers" on Twitter. Here's an example from Shel Holtz's Twitter feed:

This is worth a read, BTW. He talks about how using social media tools can turn *into* a strategy.

Useful Links for Twittering

Why short is tweet for the blogging community by Jeff Jarvis for The Guardian (Feb. 25, 2008)

Twitpic

Twitterrific

Twitteroo (URL shortening)

Bill Gates Called This Morning and Woke Me Up... Now He Wants to Twitter

Update: this was lame as an April Fool's. But hey it worked the first time.- DW

What is it with this guy? Bill Gates called me exactly two years ago about starting a CEO blog. This morning, at the ungodly hour of 4:47 AM PST, he called again. He doesn't sleep?

Anyway, this time it's about Twitter. He wants to learn how to Twitter, he said.

Bill, it's simple really. Just go to Twitter and set up your free account. Name it www.twitter.com/billgates (oops, I don't think this is you, Bill). So maybe use twitter.com/bgates. If you need help, of course I'm willing (not that I am *the* expert on Twittering). Just send the plane and I'll hop right on.

As for why you want to Tweet? Well, here's my take on it...

 

Epiphany: Twitter Puts the "There" There Back Into Social Networking

I've been Twittering for a couple of weeks now after resisting for months. It finally came to me... why Twitter (some call it micro-blogging as you're limited to 140 characters) has taken off and what need it fills.

Twittering puts the "here" back in the "there"

Cf Gertrude Stein's "there is no there there."

It fills a need we have not only for connecting with other like-minded folks, but for locating them - and ourselves - in an actual, earthly place and space.

Reading the Tweets of those you "follow" gives you tiny jolts of temporal/spatial awareness: exactly what are your colleagues or friends doing, and where are they? Now you can find out.

Not every Tweet, of course. Some of the updates are pointers to blog posts or other timely references.

Ultimately, the vague sense of "we're all online" and "in the cloud" together" is disconnecting and can make us feel more lonely. (Studies have shown this.) In contrast, the more tangible "It has finally stopped raining" (Kristen Munson aka Social Media Mom ) or "tea break" (Sun Zhifeng twittering from Shanghai) is comforting. Hey, we're all real people.

Above is an example of a Tweet this morning from newmediajim (aka Jim Long) who updates us all day on his doings as a freelance TV photojournalist. He's often at the White House or on Capitol Hill. 

It's Cherry Blossom week in Washington DC and apparently the downtown streets are jammed with tourists. Thanks for the update, Jim.

Useful Links

How I use Twitter, and you?

9,000 Twitter followers: what does that mean?

Alltop's list of Twitterati