Not laughing so much now: Delta’s blog effort
January 14, 2008
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One of the things we do as a social media agency is analyze what other people do and comment on it. To that end, way back in August, Lisa wrote a post called “Delta starts a blog, I’m still laughing.” At the time, the blog had just a few posts and, well, it was more than a bit lame. So we called them out on it, and that’s when we got our first surprise. Within an hour or two, Jacob Morris, the guy in charge of the blog, left a comment, basically saying, “Give us a chance, we’re finding our way here.”
That alone tells me that Jacob understood that Listening is Social Media Step One, and he was monitoring the reaction to his new effort. That was a good sign.
So today, I wandered back over to the Delta blog to check it out. It’s significantly better than it was. Jacob did a post on his recent vacation, Robin did one on surviving airport security. The best part is that they’ve started a series of little videos called Planeguage that are actually pretty cute. (Amazing that they make fun of some of the hassle of flying commercial, like kids kicking your seat, crazy people with the window shades, etc.)
Jacob and crew don’t have an easy assignment. Like any big corporation, I’m sure there’s conservative undertones. And there are a few things they could do better still (i.e., I was looking for an “email this” link at the end of one post I liked; use more keywords on your Planeguage posts, etc…), but they have done a nice job finding their voice. The posts are more human and authentic and less cheerleading, and they are a good mix of personal, fun and business-oriented.
Good lessons here for corporate social media marketing types:
- Get permission to do something.
- Start safe while everyone is watching.
- Find your voice over time.
- Loosen up as you hit stride.
- Don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself or your industry.
Jacob: You said you would get there. After this quick check-in, it seems like you’re on your way…
Comments
One Response to “Not laughing so much now: Delta’s blog effort”
Got something to say?
Hey Jim,
Thanks for the writeup!
Planeguage has been a lot of fun, glad you enjoyed.
One of my biggest goals this year is to really bring out those social gems within the company who can bring a lot of value to the blog and our readers.
So many of our employees work on cool things and have fascinating stories to share. Stay tuned!
Jacob