Southwest Airlines blogs from the sky
In fact, it’s not entirely true, but Southwest Airlines blog really took off last week. Nuts about Southwest is a moderated blog hosted by about 20 employees who write about their jobs at the airline, but also about the travel industry. So you’ll find posts from managers and mechanics as well as captains or flying attendants. The airline says it will welcome comments from customers, but one thing is sure: these comments might be edited — or not published. Anyway, when will we see an official blog from Air France?
But let’s look at the Southwest Airlines blog user’s guide.
Our goal with this blog is to give our readers the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us. This is as much your blog as it is ours. We have lined up a crew of bloggers representing a diverse cross-section of our Company. The most current postings will be found on the home page, and we have organized the archives by category. We want to build a personal relationship between our bloggers and you, and we need your participation. You are the “other half” of this blog, and our bloggers can’t wait to communicate with you, so get busy posting.
Nice words: it almost looks like a press release. But wait, there is more.
This is the point where we insert the “fine print” and discuss the guidelines for posting. The Southwest Blog is starting out as a moderated site because we want to ensure that everyone stays on topic. We would LUV for you to post your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and questions, but when you post, make sure that they are of general interest to most readers. Of course, profanity, racial and ethnic slurs, and rude behavior like disparaging personal remarks won’t be tolerated nor published.
The key word here is “moderated.” I’m sure some of you will object to this, but this is exactly what I’m doing here. I only accept relevant comments — no spam, no rude language.
So what do you think about this Southwest Airlines blog? Is this a PR trick or a real effort by the company to connect with its customers?
