Linda Rutherford, Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of Southwest Airlines, knows a thing or two about storytelling. Southwest constantly proves the power stories can carry and how they build brand affinity. Rutherford, chair of the Institute for Public Relations Board of Trustees, says when it comes to the craft of storytelling, you must form a perspective and have the courage to share it with others.

In 2013, Southwest unveiled a new corporate vision aimed to engage its employees through storytelling. By motivating its employees, Southwest built a solid foundation for internal communications and internal relations. Southwest has spearheaded storytelling by producing corporate videos showing employees integrating the company’s vision into their work with customers. Southwest’s purpose is defined as, “connect(ing) people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable and low-cost air travel.” In an online video published by Southwest, employees and passengers tell narratives on how memorable flying experiences were made by friendliness, reliability and cost-efficiency.

“It’s a virtuous circle where the pride employees have in their organization leads them to seek and share those great stories to turn around and tell our various stakeholders,” said Rutherford.

In terms of ensuring accuracy, Rutherford said that Southwest tells its own stories via owned social media accounts, including Twitter and YouTube. Southwest does not rely on the news media to play gatekeeper for their content. Being the one to tell your own narratives also lends to more employee engagement and excitement.

Rutherford encourages her communications team to be bold. Brands need to publish transparent and accessible organic content directly from their own channels.

Once the story is told, what comes next? Measurement. Rutherford is no stranger to the practice of public relations evaluation and measurement. Among the honors she’s received, Rutherford is a 2012 inductee into the PR News Measurement Hall of Fame. She oversees the Southwest Measurement Team, which works to set measurable objectives, monitor and measure results, and provide meaningful insights to top leadership.

Rutherford said organizations must not lose sight of desired outcomes. “We need to find more standards and transparency in our measurement and evaluation efforts. [Data] must be value-driven and lead to an insight.”

Rutherford added that organizations need to be strategic and have a clear focus. “The dangers in data are ‘data for data’s sake.’ We should not collect or report on data just because we have it. We need to be discerning. We need to not be overly focused on outputs, but also show results to outcomes.”

Combining data and storytelling help brands reach their internal and external stakeholders. This art is one that Rutherford and her team have worked hard on over the years. Rutherford is passionate about her craft and said telling Southwest’s narratives is critical to the company’s goal of connecting to all audiences.


Erin Ford is an intern at the Institute for Public Relations and a Masters Student at the University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business. Follow her on Twitter, @erinfordpr

Heidy Modarelli handles Growth & Marketing for IPR. She has previously written for Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, The Next Web, and VentureBeat.
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