Social Media Club of Fort Worth

When Jonathan Pierce, Director of Social Media for American Airlines, came to speak at SMCFW, I was impressed.

Not just with Jonathan, although his presentation was fantastic. No, I was impressed with his message, or rather the message of American Airlines: their willingness to engage with their customers through social media, the well-roundedness of their social media team, and how they’ve embraced social media in a variety of ways in hopes of streamlining the often-complicated experience of air travel.

Jonathan informed us that American Airlines started experimenting with social media in 2006 with a YouTube channel, and it has since added a Facebook (2008) and a Twitter (2009), the latter of which receives about 1,700 mentions daily. Between January 1, 2012 and his presentation on March 21, American had received 215,000 total mentions on all of their social media outlets…and the summer vacation season hasn’t even happened yet.

The point that was repeatedly emphasized during Jonathan’s presentation was service, service, service. “American is a service-oriented brand, and service is expected on social media. People come to us asking for help. We stay vigilant, always listening to social media and are ready to respond at any time.”

According to Jonathan’s nifty little Chat-o-meter chart, the majority of customers Facebook / Tweet about baggage issues or flight-related issues (delays, booking, cancellations, etc.) Both of these are very emotionally-driven subjects, but AA also receives complaints, praise, and helpful feedback from their social media outlets. Their social media team (composed of 10 people, soon to be 12) is currently divided into reservations, customer relations, and airport services, and their goal is to respond to anyone and everyone who contacts them through social media. But according to Jonathan, the American Airlines social media team’s challenge now is “getting the customer’s voice further into the organization and taking accountability for it.” And in the fast-paced world of social media, efficient response time and providing customers with the correct information is key.

Case in point: what will probably be known amongst American Airlines employees forevermore as “the Alec Baldwin incident”.

Jonathan explained how quickly Alec Baldwin’s frustrated tweets, concerning his ejection from an American Airlines flight for playing Words with Friends, went viral: less than an hour after the event occurred, it had become a trending topic on Twitter. Subsequently, American’s PR team needed to make an official statement (and fast), so they took to Facebook and issued this.

Jonathan said that he and his team learned several key things from the Alec Baldwin incident, specifically: 1) stand your ground but know when to walk away, 2) fight social media fire with social media water, 3) integrated social media and traditional media response enhances the impact of that response, 4) ensure that business continues as usual with your company when all eyes are on you, and 5) document as you go. Ultimately, Jonathan feels like the experience was a positive one for the company.

We would like to extend a big thank you to Jonathan and the rest of the American Airlines social media team, as well as the Marquis on Magnolia for the use of their event space!

Join Social Media Club Fort Worth at The Marquis on Magnolia on Wednesday, March 21 from 6-8 p.m. to find out how you can take your social media to new heights.

Learn about best practices in social customer service, content management and blogger/advocate outreach from the director of social media at American Airlines, Jonathan Pierce.

You don’t want to miss the opportunity to hear how one of the very best in the industry is engaging with and taking care of its customers using social media.

You can register to attend on Eventbrite for $15. Light appetizers and drinks will be served.

Thank you to our event sponsor:

facebook.com/aa     twitter.com/americanair

Last week’s “Journalism in the Age of Social Media” panel at Four Day Weekend provided a mixture of perspectives about how social media has affected (and continues to influence) several different aspects of journalism. We were lucky enough to have a panel that consisted of individuals from a variety of backgrounds: two printed publications, a website/blog, and a television network.

Below is a transcript of some of the discussion.
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Panelists:

Meda Kessler, editorial director of 360 West Magazine

Kevin Buchanan of blog Fort Worthology

Chris Van Horne, a Fort Worth-based video journalist with NBC 5

Bob Francis, editor of the Fort Worth Business Press

Stephanie Scott, Moderator and President of SMCFW

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Stephanie: How has social media changed your job?

Meda: We consider our social media audience to be different from our readership, so we put information in our printed publications that we don’t put on social media. Social media forces us to edit ourselves that way, by figuring out what people want to read, and helping us reach that different audience. Also, social media allows us to react to current events that occur right before or right after publication.

Kevin: My concentration is on the Fort Worthology website. Facebook and Twitter is secondary. I interact with readers through Facebook and Twitter because Fort Worthology doesn’t allow comments.

Chris: We consider social media to be just another tool. The station has a bunch of different Twitter handles, which reaches out to different demographics. We have a younger audience on Facebook and Twitter, so I try to do a little social media every day if I can. We also use social media to tease stories for things like the 5 o’clock news.

Bob: Before social media, the readers saw Fort Worth Business Press once a week and interacted with us accordingly, but now we can interact and market ourselves to our readers on a daily basis.

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Stephanie: Do you use social media to crowd-source fast-breaking news?

Bob: Social media definitely allows for quicker feedback on news stories.

Kevin: I occasionally find new stories via social media, but it isn’t a primary source. For Fort Worthology, I’m more concerned with bringing my perspective as opposed to breaking the story first. Fort Worthology is news in a way, but it’s also advocacy.

Chris: I occasionally do searches on social media for Fort Worth, just to make sure there isn’t a story going on that I’m missing. I agree that it’s not a primary source, but it’s a good resource.

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Stephanie: How do you use social media to market your brand and do PR?

Meda: We use social media to highlight things that are dated in the magazine, to show off photos, and link back to the digital edition whenever possible. We want to remind people that the magazine is our #1 job, and that there’s stuff in the magazine that you won’t see on Facebook.

Kevin: If Twitter or Facebook went away tomorrow, my job wouldn’t change. My job is to write quality content daily. The presence of social media doesn’t make Fort Worthology work, because it’s all about the quality of the content.

Bob: The Fort Worth Business Press Twitter account is doing great, I actually do most of the tweets from my office. There’s great value in seeing immediate feedback from what I post.

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Stephanie: Social media hasn’t caused the death of publication, but it has caused some trouble…how do you feel about it?

Chris: I don’t think it’s social media specifically that’s causing the problem, I think it’s the web in general…although social media is a part of that.

Meda: When it comes to breaking news, it’s tough for newspapers, because breaking news is old as soon as we turn off the printing press. As for 360 West, I still like looking at magazines, holding it in my hands and turning pages, and our audience enjoys that aspect of printed magazines too. I think there will always be a demand for that kind of experience.

Kevin: We saw this with the music industry and with movies. The world is changing so fast, and the Old World is still trying to maintain their way of doing things. They aren’t adapting, they haven’t embraced the change. I think over time that there will be plenty of ways to make money off of this [web-based] stuff, but it will not be the Old World way. That’s why there’s something to be said for the niche person…maybe there won’t be publications that cover broad subjects, and everything will go niche.

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Stephanie: What is the best way to contact journalists directly?

Chris: I prefer contact by email and by phone. I don’t check Twitter as much, because it’s still kind of secondary. Facebook comments are great for interaction too.

Kevin: Most people contact me on Twitter. I want to be involved in Twitter and Facebook because I enjoy interacting with people. However, if PR people try to send me press releases on Twitter, they get blocked.

Meda: Agreed. I’m not a fan of press release journalism. Some companies send out press releases because they want to have more control over what we say about them, and I have a big problem with that. We still take the time to go check stuff out, as opposed to doing journalism based on press releases.

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Stephanie: What do you anticipate will be the “next big thing” in social media?

Chris: Tablets, apps, and mobile devices.

Bob: We went to a slick cover for our publications starting this year, and it was influenced by the iPad. It makes pictures and other images look a lot better than normal newsprint.

Kevin: I’m working on a new website design, and the primary goal is mobile devices and tablets. It will look good on desktop browsers too, but it’s really intended for mobile.

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The conversation with our panelists covered a lot of topics, but they all agreed that their respective industries are beginning to incorporate more social media into their journalistic practices as a way to expand their demographics and reach out to new readers, in addition to receiving instant feedback on breaking stories.

In other words, traditional journalism isn’t dead…it’s just evolving.

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to Meda, Kevin, Chris, and Bob for appearing on our panel. We would also like to thank Four Day Weekend for the use of their space. Please support Four Day Weekend co-founder David Ahearn’s latest film project on Kickstarter, and by using the hashtag #Run4DayWknd on Twitter.

Journalism in the Age of Social Media

Join Social Media Club Fort Worth at Four Day Weekend Theater on Wednesday, February 29 from 6-8 p.m. to learn how journalism is evolving with social media. Register Here.

Local journalists will discuss how their jobs have changed since the advent of social media, and how they use social media to develop and share compelling stories.

Panelists include:

- Meda Kessler, Editorial Director, 360 West
- Kevin Buchanan, Blogger, Fortworthology
- Bob Francis, Editor, Fort Worth Business Press
- Chris Van Horne, Video Journalist, NBC 5
- Maricar Estrella, Social Media Editor, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Thank you to our event sponsor:

twitter.com/4daywkd

facebook.com/fourdayweekend

You don’t want to miss Explore Dallas-Fort Worth on Friday, Feb. 17! 

This intensive day of social media seminars and workshops is designed to help the business owner, marketing professional, public relations practitioner, and even non-communications discipline professionals understand a deeper, more strategic approach to digital and social media marketing for their business.

The event will feature leading thinkers, researchers and practitioners in the digital marketing industry, including Social Media Explorer’s Jason Falls, Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Tom Webster of Edison Research, Aaron Strout from WCG, and more!

Register via Eventbrite using THIS LINK and discount code SMCFW to get 50% off your ticket:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2647026327/SMCFTWORTH/21557167212.

SMC Fort Worth is a sponsor and will have a booth, so be sure to stop by. Hope to see you there!

The first of SMCFW’s quarterly crowd sourcing events of the year was held last night at Times Ten Cellars. It was a chilly, rainy evening, but over thirty SMCFWers (some old and some new friends) came out to network and learn more about measurement and social media ROI. From small business owners to representatives from local publications, non-profit organizations, and corporations, there was a wide variety in attendance, proving that social media is crucial no matter what business you’re in.

Moderators for the evening were Kevin Richardson and Andy Lawson who did an excellent job keeping the group on topic and throwing in a few laughs, too. As a group we we discussed specific tools we use for tracking social metrics such as Sprout Social, Radian 6, Google Analytics, Tweet Reach, and Facebook Insights, among others. We also discussed the importance of including a call to action for every post you send out so that you are working towards effective goals and conversions.

With so many moving parts in social media from different platforms to different metrics, it’s easy to feel isolated. Biggest take-a-way from the evening? Andy Lawson got it right when he said, “Social isn’t an island. It’s part of everything you do”.

Check our Facebook and Twitter for updates on our next crowd-sourcing event. You’ll want to sign up early as we keep these gatherings to a maximum of forty to maintain the intimacy of the group.

Kick off 2012 with Social Media Club Fort Worth at our first Tweetup of the new year, Thursday, Jan. 12 from 6-8 p.m. at Bar Louie!

Come have a drink, chat with fellow DFW professionals and social media enthusiasts, and see what SMC Fort Worth is all about.

Let’s get some buzz going for Bar Louie! You can like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/barlouieamerica and follow them on Twitter at @BarLouie. 

We look forward to seeing you on January 12! Don’t forget to tweet during the event with hashtag #SMCFW.

Pictured: Corey Lark, Colleen Fischer, Stephanie Scott,
Chrissy Madison, Ryan Cormier, Chris Goulet and Andrea Duffie