Meet the #hewebAR Conference Keynote: Christi McNeill from Southwest Airlines

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I’ve mentioned it a few times (4 exactly since March ;-) on this blog, Higher Ed Experts has chosen to support the 5 regional conferences organized by the High Ed Web Professional Association and help them bring great keynote speakers.

Whether or not you get a chance to attend the High Ed Web AR conference next week in Little Rock, AR, I also want to make sure that you learn a bit from the conference keynote speaker, Christi McNeill who is the online spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest airline in terms of domestic Customers boarded.

She works as the “voice” behind the Southwest Airlines Twitter account (@Southwestair) and Facebook Fan page. Christi is also a moderator and blogger on Nuts About Southwest. Yet, she found time to provide short to-the-point answers to my too long questions — as you can see by the ratio of black to orange below ;-)

1) You are in charge of Southwest social media communications. Can you tell us what that entails?

I oversee the Southwest Airlines Social Media strategy. I’m specifically on the Social Business and Listening Team. I work on a cross functional team of about 10 Employees that are from various departments (Marketing, Comms, Customer Relations).

2) With more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter, Southwestair has a huge audience on this platform but tweets sparingly. How do you determine what is “Twitter material” and what isn’t?

We like to make sure that we are using our Twitter feed for relevant updates to our fans. We want every message to mean something. We are aware of the rules of the community and want to be a respected player.

3) The blog, Nuts about Southwest, is all about community building and customers passion for the airline. Any lessons learned higher ed institutions could steal from it?

Stories exist everywhere! I think any business can find great stories just by listening to what their Customers and Employees have to say. We spend a lot of time monitoring and listening to conversations taking place across the web, then we try to provide relevant and intriguing content to meet those needs.

4) You’re going to present the keynote talk at the High Ed Web Arkansas conference. Can you tell us a bit more about your talk and what attendees will be able to learn?

Attendees will learn the power of authentic communication through storytelling. They will also learn about the social journey Southwest Airlines has been on to build its online communities, use social channels to help build business and increase customer engagement. Utilizing a listening center and dedicated resources, the airline is building a practice to utilize social for Customer Care. Through discussion of a few case studies you will hear lessons learned, insights on governance and what value can be created from embedding social across the enterprise.