How a Blog Transformed Air Travel

How a Blog

You had me with the full can of soda.

“Yes,”  Allison Steinberg smiled and dotted the i and crossed the t of the seven word mantra of JetBlue.  ”We bring humanity back to air travel.”

And that means we get the full can of soda.

How many people, how many times a flight, have wondered about that moment when the air hosts and hostesses see saw their drink cart through the aisles.  How very smart of JetBlue to recognize the big picture of that little moment.

Allison Steinberg is the Senior Media Analyst at JetBlue Airways and the author and editor of JetBlue’s BlueTales blog.  Her presentation entitled, “Leverage a Company’s Blog to Increase Your Brand Awareness” was one of the morning sessions at the 4th Annual PR and Media Relations Best Practices Summit presented by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. at the Con Edison Headquarters Union Square in New York on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 where she shared insights for getting and tailoring content unique and valuable to audiences and how to use your blog to make your messages credible and consistent.

Why blog?

Of course a blog will do all those bloggy markety things like “create brand awareness”, “increase customer loyalty”, “step up SEO”, etc.  By publishing relevant, timely information that gives readers the “why” behind the “what, many marketing mitzvahs will tumble your way.   Some are:

1. you will educate you customers on your product and services
2. you can entice reporters to go to your blog as a source
3. you can grow niche audiences of customers, business partners, reporters, employees and industry geeks

How does Allison do this?

“The blog is the center of gravity,”  Allison stated, almost maternal in pride and tone.   She spoke about the different kinds of stories you could find on the blog.  Stories about what’s new ( a new airport), behind the scenes (just how in the world does that carousel luggage thing work?), a human interest angle ( a customer story), updates for the media (facts & figures, info rich stream of information about an event or crisis).  The one that piqued my interest was the “Day in the Life” story she does that follows a JetBlue employee.  Don’t you wonder about what happens during the working hours of a pilot, ticket agent or mechanic?  Personally, I am intensely curious about the people who figure out how to make those cookies.

Allison also does a series called, “Unpacked” where you can discover delightful bits of airplane arcania like “How do you choose new cities?’ or “What is turbulence?” which is something that takes on enormous significance especially when you are in it.  She says it creates informed customers.

Here are some of my favorite takeaways from her presentation:

• Set a cadence.  The informal voice engages more than a press release.
• Encourage everyone on your team to mine for information and visuals.  ”Wing Woman”, a column created by a jetBlue employee has become a very popular blog.
• To be an ongoing media hook, insert yourself as a credible source into a media story.  I am not sure which story she was referring to but I believe this is a good way to manage crisis communications.

What about you?

“Adapt, reuse content.  Mix original reporting with some behind the scenes stories, how to’s, announcement of new products.”

For example, JetBlue did a pre-press release story on the blog about the American Airline merger.  It was released on Valentine’s Day and featured an image of a heart candy with a message that read, “SINGLE & LOVING IT”.  An instantly recognizable candy with a twist to its traditional messaging of “BE MINE” and “I LOVE YOU” to mirror the tongue in cheek, sly wink of a story that reasserts the pride JetBlue has in being independent and all that it does to set itself apart from the pack.

A sweet ending with the full can of soda.

How To Sell Water And Market Your Brilliant Career

When you ask for water at Cafe Bar in Astoria, this is what you get.

Now I don’t know about you but all I need is a glass to go with my water.

I am amazed that someone actually figured out how to reconstruct water, bottle it and get it on a menu.

I love packaging.

I love stuff that is put together for me, made easier for me, cleverly wrapped and boxed for me.  If the actual thing is something I actually need, that’s a home run.  I appreciate the thinking behind the product.  Ask me how many pairs of #9 knitting needles I own.  Go ahead.  I must have a dozen pairs and will probably continue to merrily acquire more.

Because they came in these OMG!-must-have knitting kits that came with a beautifully styled photograph of a fabulous knit quelque chose, some yummy yarn, and a pair of knitting needles in a cute little bag.  Could I have gone out and put all that together myself among all of the boxes of knitting stuff that has slowly taken over Seth’s side of the closet?  Of course!  But I put all that, and the vision of thousands of loose needles, skeins of yarns tumbling out of shoeboxes and towers of knitting pattern magazines and willingly flung down my credit card because I was blissfully seduced by smart and sexy -

packaging.

What about your brilliant career?

Here are some thoughts that ran through my mind about you.

Do you have a product you are passionate about?

I have been talking to a lot of writers who want to know more about marketing and telling their story.  Well, besides the obvious book, there are other ways for your words to work their magic.  A set of poems in an ebook?  A serial romance on a local radio show?  A reading of your newest work?

Can you picture your perfect customer – their likes, weaknesses, impulse shopping habits?

Who would buy your book?  Is she like you, does she read on a Kindle, what genres does she read, does she belong to a book club?  The more you know about your customer, the better you will be at getting her to become a loyal fan of yours.

Are you making it easy for people to buy who you are or what you have to sell?

People are lazy.  If you can create something that is easy to understand and either solves a problem or promises a unique experience, people will take notice and buy it.

Be creative.  If you need some inspiration, have a nice tall glass of reconstructed water.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

7 Incredibly Simple Ways To Get People to Love Your Blog

I drew Dan Heath, co-author of Switch, and the keynote speaker at a recent NTen Technology Conference on my iPad

Has this ever happened to you?

You are in a roomful of people who you would love to get to know.  People who are important or influential connectors in your field.  How are you going to make a good impression on them so that they remember you and better yet, want to work with you?

Why people connect

Think about it.  Why do you want to meet certain people?  For world peace?  For a better tomorrow?

People connect to benefit themselves.  Simple and plain.  If you happen to cure cancer along the way, great.  Now why would someone read your blog?  To increase your subscriber list?  To move you to higher in Google search?

Are you kidding?

People will read your blog if it helps them save money, learn how to do something or meet somebody.  To solve a problem or to make their lives better. Think about it.  You search for a deal on airline tickets, how to invest, where to go for fresh gnocchi, etc.  You read blogs that are all about the things you are interested in so that you can learn stuff and connect with similar spirits.  It is all about your readers, not you.

Here’s a simple twist on human nature

There is another reason people go on line.

They like to see themselves in the blogosphere.  People love to see who is responding to their tweets, who liked the photo of themselves they just posted on Facebook, who left a comment on their blog.  They want to be noticed, they want their presence to be acknowledged.  They want other people to see them.

Knowing this, I have a secret weapon for all of you ninjas:

Sketchbook Pro for iPad

How can a drawing program help me?

So glad you asked.

You don’t have to be a portrait artist to do this.  Stick figures, flattering of course, will work just as well with a little creativity on your part.

1. Download SketchBook Pro on your iPad You can get the free version to start off.  If you want more features, the upgraded version is about $7.  Use your stylus to take notes.  I picked one up at the Apple store.  You can also get them online if you Google “cheap iPad stylus”.
2. Use your stylus to capture quick sketches I like doing quick sketches of speakers at conferences.  Here are some of  the smart folks I heard from at the NTen Technology Conference who told us why you should be in the Google nonprofit program.
3. Take photos with your phone camera Can’t draw fast enough?  Can’t draw?  Take pictures of people with your phone camera.  If you have a really nice camera, use it.  Try to get good close ups of their faces.  Many times I produce a sketch from the photos I take.  The great thing about SketchBook Pro is that you can scribble notes on your sketch so if you do a lot of conference blogging like I do, you can capture both text and image.
4. Get business cards This is what I always do:  Go up to the people you have just captured in a sketch or a photo and ask them for their business card.  Smile like a media pro and say,  “I have a great sketch of you and it is going up on my blog.  Do you have a card so I can spell your name right?  I’ll send you a link.”   People will gladly exchange cards with you and remember you with interest.
5. Make notes Whatever people say to you is a story worth remembering.  Try to capture the essence of your conversation in brief notes, I am partial to  seven words or less.  You can use them later as quotes or even as captions
6. Write a hot headline If you write something that piques or provokes interest on top of your sketch, people will be curious and want to read on.  Here’s a great piece on Copyblogger about how to write magnetic headlines.
7. Link and love Remember those business cards?  Link to them if they have a blog or a website.  I like to send a personal email with the link inviting them to read my post and see themselves!

People love seeing themselves drawn and photographed.  And shared with you.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?