Southwest Airlines to Join the Mile Wi-Fi Club - Will They Reach Out to Bloggers?

I saw today on Engadget that Southwest Airlines has plans to launch in-flight Wi-Fi beginning this summer (official news release here.) The initial run on Wi-Fi-outfitted planes may be limited to four at first but they apparently plan to roll this out across the board in the future. They're aiming to provide the best in-flight Wi-Fi available according to Dave Ridley, Southwest's Senior Vice President of Marketing: "We intend to deliver the highest bandwidth available to commercial airlines in the United States." There has been no word as to whether the service will be free on the flights.

This is pretty exciting for those of us who travel with laptops, iPhones, or any other Wi-Fi enabled device. When Southwest is ready to launch this service I can't help but wonder if they'll reach out to bloggers to spread the word. It would make quite a statement if they filled the inaugural Wi-Fi flight with bloggers, all of whom would be live-blogging the flight. That would likely make news itself, not to mention all the blog posts from those on the flight and residual blog posts that would follow. This seems like a great opportunity for a company that has a reputation for doing things a little different from everybody else. Heck, they could even bring along their own bloggers.

One request if Southwest happens to see this...if you do the blogger flight, leave the middle seats open. Bloggers like their space. Bonus request: can I come?

Perhaps once this rolls out it will be a good reason for business travelers to fly rather than drive when they have the option. They could actually be productive on the flight rather than losing that time in the air. Why fly? Wi-Fi.

PR Firm Strikes Out Promoting to Bloggers

Earlier this week I discussed whether PR professionals are better new media marketers than traditional marketers. I still contend that PR pros have the better mindset for new media marketing. The variable, of course, is whether the PR pros have taken the time to understand the new media culture. I have seen one such case in the last few weeks where a PR firm didn't (and likely still doesn't) understand new media. Here's what happened...

On August 6, I received a "Blogger Alert" in my email from a "full-service media and public relations agency founded in 1994 to 'restore faith in media,' provide 'value-added P.R. that defines values' and give Christian messages relevance and meaning in mainstream media."

This "alert" was an HTML email sent with the following headline:
CREATE A "CULTURE OF STEWARDSHIP" IN YOUR CHURCH

The email was to notify me of a new 30-day small group stewardship study by a well known church stewardship consulting firm and that this product now has a promo video on YouTube and GodTube. Nine days later I received another email from this same organization but this time it wasn't a blogger alert, rather a standard news release.

So...where to begin...ok, here's the beginning of my issues with these emails:
1. I don't know this PR firm. I have heard of them but have never talked to anyone from their organization.
2. I don't recall ever signing up for any news alerts from this organization. I don't see anywhere on their website where I could sign up for news alerts if I want them so I assume I never signed up for anything. Both emails I received from them had links to unsubscribe from their list, but how did I get on it to begin with?
3. What do they want from me? Both the alert and news release didn't say what they want me to do if in the off chance I am actually interested in what they are promoting.
4. Is this really newsworthy? So an organization created a new product and they posted a video on YouTube and GodTube? Is that it? Am I missing something else here?

I have to admit these emails really frustrated me because they're coming from a Christian PR firm that just seems lazy. I really hope it's simply a case of ignorance and that they will learn there are better ways to promote to bloggers. In an effort to follow up a little ranting with a little help, here are some things for new media marketers (PR folks or otherwise) to keep in mind when they want bloggers to promote something for them:

• Remember that bloggers are individuals not organizations. If you want a blogger to promote something for you, you MUST build a relationship with him or her before you do anything else. It's the most important thing you can do.
• Be direct. If you want something, don't beat around the bush. The blogger is already expecting you to ask for something, otherwise you wouldn't be emailing him or her. Bloggers are generally pretty nice folks. They may turn you down, but if you're direct and personal they will still probably respond (and not write a blog post about how you don't know what you're doing.)
• Don't be a spammer. When you send an email blast to bloggers you're spamming them. Spam is unsolicited bulk email. From time to time I get personal emails from organizations and individuals to mention something on this blog. If it's a personal email I try to always respond. If it feels canned, fake, or otherwise less than authentic, I delete it. If it's a bulk email I delete it also...except in this case when it just seemed like it was time to talk about it on this blog.
• Bloggers would rather make and break news than react to news. Give us a chance. Don't give bloggers the scraps. Was the fact that this client has a video on YouTube really newsworthy? If you already know it's not newsworthy in mainstream media then don't bother sending it to bloggers either.
• Study the individual blogs you hope will work with you. If you have never read the blog that you want to use, don't email the blogger. Take some time to at least read the most recent four or five posts and look through their archives to see what makes the person tick. You will almost always find something that you can relate to what you're doing...otherwise why do you want that blogger in the first place?
  

3 Reasons Why You Need Bloggers

My friend Chris is one of the more creative people I know. Not in an artsy kind of way but in the kind of way where he has ideas that challenge conventional thinking and go against the flow enough to be different but still fit within mainstream interest. He recently began an endeavor to eat all 51 sandwich combinations at a local Which Wich? sandwich shop and blog about each sandwich. Chris also lets his readers vote on one of five sandwiches each day in the comments and the winning sandwich of the day is the one he eats at lunch.

At first he was doing the reviews and his friends and family were commenting on the sandwiches for the day. Then he started to get noticed by the folks at his local Which Wich as the guy who blogged about their sandwiches. The next thing he knows there's a stamp on all the sandwich bags like the one seen here. Then a bunch of widely read blogs start talking about the story and days later he gets a call from the founder of Which Wich who wants to fly to Nashville to have lunch with him and today I learned that all Which Wich shops across the country will likely be stamping their bags with the "Will Chris Make All 51?" slogan in a week or so.

So what can you learn about your need for bloggers from all of this? Here are three things that come to mind immediately:

• Bloggers provide free publicity. Until Chris started the Which Wich challenge I'd never even heard of the place and I live in a metropolitan area with two locations. I even noticed the downtown Which Wich just yesterday for the first time and I've driven by it dozens of times. Blogs are the ultimate in word of mouth marketing and provide the holy grail of publicity at the most fundamental levels. They influence people either on the basis of an authentic and objective opinions or with a personal relationship you'll never be able to match.
  

• Bloggers affect your Google results. As I write this, four out of the first ten items on a Google search for "which wich" are either from Chris' blog or about what Chris is doing. In this case it turns out to be good PR for Which Wich but if Chris had a bone to pick with them and consistently talked about it that could be news for Which Wich as curious Internet searchers would find all kinds of negative commentary right off the bat. Have you Googled your organization recently? Have you checked both the Google image search and the Google blog search for your organization's name? Got Google alerts set up for your organization and key leaders? If not, you might want to see if you've got a fan (or foe) blogger out there.
  

• Bloggers will keep you sharp. The most fundamental thing you can do to get bloggers to talk about you has nothing to do with bloggers at all. If you do what you do well, a blogger will find you and tell other people about it on his or her blog. If you do it well consistently you might even get a person like Chris to generate a lot of genuine interest your way. If that day comes, take a note from the Which Wich playbook and support that blogger all the way.