On May 21, 2009, marketers from all over Austin converged on the Hilton for the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) where the Austin AMA and the OMS jointly hosted the luncheon as a part of the Power Lunch Series. The speaker was Paula Berg, who shared her successes and failures in Social Media for Southwest Airlines.

Through my recent adventures into Social Media I have found chests full of theory and only a few hidden nuggets of practical usable knowledge. At least that was the case until Paula Berg took the stage last week at the Austin AMA - OMS luncheon. As our barbecue lunch began to settle, Paula walked us through her ups and downs in Social Media for Southwest Airlines. Like most companies, Southwest started their foray into Social Media with a blog, but Paul and her team have since utilized everything from Twitter to YouTube.

Southwest Airlines Emerging Media Presentation

I’m sure that Paula didn’t have a top ten list in mind while she was presenting, but in the spirit of Social Media here are the 10 things Paul taught us about Social Media:

1. It 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.
2. 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…
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. You need thick skin. Criticism, warranted or not, hurts. The lesson is to be prepared to take the good with the bad.
6. 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.
7. 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!
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Southwest will be flying to Hawaii and Mexico in the near future. Paula was kind enough to slip us this insider information after her presentation. This doesn’t really have any Social Media implications, but twitter probably works better on the beach.

- Josh

On May 12, 2009, hundreds of Austin marketing professionals gathered for Marketing Jam ‘09 hosted by The Austin chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). Marketer, Blogger and AMA Member, Darren Drewitz gives a recap of all the activities.

“I wanna rock-n-roll all night and practice marketing every day.” With apologies to the legendary rock band KISS, this was the adopted slogan for Marketing Jam 09. The Austin chapter of the American Marketing Association hosted a hybrid night of marketing best practices, networking and live music at the always hip Cool River Café in North Austin. With the VP of Programs Elect Simon Salt emceeing the way, AMA members were treated to a fun and informative meeting featuring some of today’s top marketing acts.

Simon introduces the speakers

The “opening band” was Pierpont Communications and the AMA groupies were treated to a duet presentation from Senior VP, Michael Russell and VP, Stacy Armijo. Michael’s set list included a situational overview of today’s business climate in a down economy and how to do more with less when achieving marketing success and new business. The “must haves” in today’s marketing world as sung by Michael are strategy, targets, messaging and differentiation. “Times are tough,” “capital is restrained,” and “we never have enough money or time for new business leads” were the catchy tunes belted by Michael Russell. But with each set of challenges comes a set of solutions and the SVP of Pierpont had a valuable list of low-cost tactics of developing new business. Ideas included hand-written letters, hosting c-level luncheons, power mapping and speaking at great events like Marketing Jam 09.

Stacy speaks to the crowd on the role of a Marketer.

Pierpont VP, Stacy Armijo struck a chord with every AMA attendee when with her anthem “Defending the Role of Marketing.” A veteran of corporate marketing, Stacy offered insights and real-world tips on how a professional marketer can defend their role and value in today’s uncertain employment world. Stacy’s insights and advice included speaking to your bosses on their level, marketing yourself internally, tracking and reporting progress and showing a direct correlation between your day-to-day efforts with the company’s success.

Check Pierpont’s rock’n presentation, for more on what Michael and Stacy had to say.

Next up, was TradeMark Media. A solo act lead by Nick Weynand, Nick’s hit song was “Stop Tweeting and Start Thinking.” Tweet, tweet, tweet is a catchy tune, but Nick was quick to point out that tweeting without strategy is a tune that falls a bit flat.

Nick asks everyone to think before you tweet.

Nick took the crowd through a step-by-step approach to identifying the building blocks of developing strategy for clients. Determine your goals, understand your audiences, use research, survey your customers, and develop appropriate messages to the appropriate segmented groups. Nick touched on the DISC personality test and profiling system, then he declared the room an “I” given that so many marketers were in the audience. We’re know as a bunch who is sociable, talkative, energetic and talks more than listens.

Jam through Nick’s power point below.

The next act was another duet. This time, it was Annie Williams and Jim Hitch with Emma. With a dose of humor in their set, Annie and Jim wanted e-mail marketing and social media to give each other a “hug.” Their presentation was aptly titled “Social media and e-mail marketing are friends. And not just on Facebook.” E-mail marketing expert, Annie Williams, politely asked social media to “drop your weapons” and then took the AMA groupies through a series of definitions of social media and industry statistics. It first hit Annie that social media was big when her mom’s friend requested her on Facebook. The AMA Marketing Jam attendees learned that if Facebook was a country, it would be the 6th most populist country in the world. Additional stats included Facebook growing by 600,000 users per day and receiving more daily searches than Yahoo.

Annie and Jim declare Email Marketing and Social Media are friends. Really!

Jim Hitch joined the set half-way through and together, the duet from Emma demonstrated how companies can utilize e-mail marketing to send their clients relevant, targeted messages and create an online community for branding purposes in the social marketing medium. Marketing is a team sport, so said Jim and Annie and they demonstrated how e-mail marketing and social marketing can and should work together with real world case studies with Southwest Airlines and the New York Times.

For more on what Jim and Annie had to say, careen their groovin slide deck.

And with that, the Marketing portion of the evening was completed and it was time for the AMA crowd to get to the Jam portion of the evening. AMA members and guests were treated to fun, networking, food and spirits while the band Lip Service played our favorite hits from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The vibe was all Austin - casual, fun and energetic. The AMA attendees had ample time to hang with each other, network and enjoy a Tuesday evening in Austin with good tunes, friends and marketing discussions. Check out some additional pics from the event from our FlickR stream.

Photos from Marketing Jam 2009

“I wanna rock-n-roll all night and practice marketing every day.” Let us know what you thought about this year’s Marketing Jam. I had a great time and learned something new along the way. See you at Marketing Jam 2010.

About Darren Drewitz

Darren has 16 years of strategic and integrated marketing experience on both the client and agency sides. He has experience in both B2B and B2C marketing, including the multi-location, food, logistics, building & construction and tourism industries. Darren specializes in developing year-long strategic and integrated marketing plans designed to align business objectives with marketing initiatives. Darren lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Melissa and their two sons. Darren serves as an account director for MQ&C Advertising, a 25-year-old, full-service marketing and advertising agency.

Did you like the programming you just read? It’s always better in person. Visit the Austin American Marketing Association website (www.austinama.org) for upcoming events, membership information and volunteer opportunities.