ORLANDO—A few months ago, filmmaker Kevin Smith—a self-proclaimed “fatty”—was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight because his portly frame was too big for a single seat ticket.
Had the director/actor voiced his outrage, say, three years ago, his comments might have been confined to the cabin of the plane. But in this fast-paced world of social media, he did what an increasing number of travelers are doing to voice complaints: He pulled out his smartphone and tweeted.
In this particular case, Neal sent a flurry of tweets to Smith acknowledging the incident while displaying Southwest’s commitment to guest satisfaction:
@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! I’m so sorry for your experience tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!
I read every single tweet that comes into this account, and take every tweet seriously. We’ll handle @thatkevinsmith issue asap
I’ve read the tweets all night from @thatkevinsmith – He’ll be getting a call at home from our Customer Relations VP tonight.
Acknowledging your mistakes is key when dealing with social media, Neal told attendees at the “Social Media Super Session” at HITEC yesterday in Orlando. Showing customers—and Twitter followers and Facebook friends—that you care and work to address problems will foster loyalty in the long-run.
“Be transparent. Don’t be afraid to show the good, bad and the ugly,” he said. “… Have a free-flowing conversation. Let your customer vent. Let your customer praise. But also respond. Let them know that you’re listening, and let them know you care.”
But fostering transparency isn’t the only tenet for social media. Neal, along with his fellow panelists, offered these six additional rules of the game:
1. Engage the customer
If you send a tweet, is there anyone who actually reads it? Only if your content is engaging, said Danielle Courtenay, chief marketing officer of the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Engaging customers was of particular importance last year, when Orlando, like most of the rest of the world, was hit with one of the worst economic recessions in history. Instead of developing generic social media strategy to get the world out, Courtenay and her team developed a personal campaign called 67 Days of Smile (http://www.orlandoinfo.com/67days/), for which they went on a nationwide search for a pair of adventurous everybodies who would experience everything Orlando had to offer in a span of 67 days. Along the way, the pair would be tasked with tweeting, blogging, posting pictures, videos—and essentially communicating their entire experience via social media.
The project eventually became a hit, yielding more than 10,000 Facebook fans, 4,000 Twitter followers, 28,000 YouTube video views, 80,000 blog hits and 919 media hit, which Courtenay equated to more than US$3 million in marketing impressions. (The campaign cost the Orlando CVB approximately US$30,000.)
The campaign’s key to success? It’s a pair of enthusiastic, engaging New York twenty-somethings who distributed content—and lots of it—organically, personally and intimately.
“It’s got to be real. You can’t be calculated,” Neal said of content. “… Don’t have diarrhea of the mouth. If you have something to say, make sure it’s compelling. … That’s the quickest way to build a following and have people trust you.”
2. Keep the message consistent
Southwest has a Facebook page, a Twitter account, blogs, YouTube accounts, iPhone apps and a number of other channels.
Yet as diverse as those channels are, the message is consistent.
“We definitely have to say the same thing in all the channels,” Neal said. Doing so enhances the message.
3. Funnel content to your home base
Of all of Southwest’s social media channels, perhaps the company’s most important is its blog.
Why? Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other third-party channels, the Nuts About Southwest (http://www.blogsouthwest.com/) corporate blog is proprietary; its content is contained within Southwest’s own website, so the company can push visitors to book directly through its reservations system.
Given that opportunity to convert visitors, Southwest funnels content on its other social media channels to the blog, which acts as an anchor to its entire social media campaign.
4. Target niche audiences
Social media allows companies to reach to targeted consumers in ways never before possible. Therefore, you should think small, not broadly, said James Leitess, e-business manager for Steamboat Ski & Resort Company. If you communicate to a niche audience, the more likely you’ll be able to foster meaningful interaction that will lead to conversion.
Steamboat, for example, offers a Twitter feed—one of a handle the company publishes—that tweets out nothing but mountain and weather conditions. The thread certainly lacks board appeal, but it’s tremendously valuable for those loyal followers who use it to discern whether or not to hit the slopes.
When targeting niche audiences, it’s also helpful to form partnerships with social media savants. Southwest, for example, partnered with the Lance Armstrong Foundation (@LIVESTRONG) to promote the company’s “bikes fly free” campaign.
5. Remember: Content lives forever
When you distribute something via social media, you distribute it in perpetuity. Therefore, you’ve got to be careful what you say.
“It’s pretty easy to put your foot in your mouth,” Leitess said. “… Once something is said, you can’t un-say it.”
Such longevity isn’t all bad, however. Though the official 67 Days of Smile is concluded, Courtenay still leverages that content to engage customers through Facebook and other channels.
6. Think mobile
Where is social media headed? All signs point to the smartphone in your pocket, the panelists agreed.
Mobile platforms and applications have become increasingly important as the devices penetrate the world market at an exponential rate. Some companies, such as Southwest, have already seen incredible engagement and noticeable ROI through their mobile websites.
Others who are looking to jump aboard the leading edge to avoid missing out on the bleeding edge are making commitments to mobile technology in the near future.
“We tend to look at analytics or what’s the buzz in the industry. It’s pretty clear given our resources,” Leitess said. “… This year for the first year we’ve actually had revenue come through the mobile phones. That’s definitely one place (we’re going to continue to develop).”