Shel introduced Southwest Airlines as a “best practice” company when it comes to blogging, and Paula Berg’s presentation was a really helpful example of an official externally facing corporate blog. The blog has been an excellent way of getting feedback from customers (on the non-assigned seating policy, for instance.) Better than a focus group.
This does take time, however. The blog is moderated to screen out vulgar and obscene content, for Spam, and also they don’t allow customer service issues comments, because those issues are handled individually and receive an individual response. They have 20 bloggers who do two posts a month, and they have a day-long approval/editing process. Legal doesn’t review anything, but Paula does a report to management every week.
Technorati: Southwest Airlines, Blogging
