The Southwestern Company Tubes

Habitat for Humanity

Nate de la Piedra — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:24:33 +0000

Southwestern Marketing Team

The Southwestern company has adopted a Habitat for Humanity project and the different departments take turns on different weekends being the volunteers. This weekend it was the marketing departments turn so we donned our tshirts and shorts and went off to the site. Most of the construction was done so it was painting time.

Here are a few pics including one of our fearless leader Trey Campbell, Director of Communications, painting the entirely wrong spot.

Trey Campbell Director of Communications should stick to Communications

Brand Spanking New Laptop

Nate de la Piedra — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:37:41 +0000

Well this is exciting, I’m writing this post on my brand new laptop. Well, it’s not really my laptop, it’s owned by the Southwestern Company, but it’s my new work laptop. This is really fun because I was using a “loaner” from the IS department which was a) a desktop and b) slower than a drunken sloth. Now I have the ability to work from anywhere in the building (who loves WI-FI?) and can do all my busy work in private (instead of my desk which appears to be the nexus of human traffic flow in the building) and actually get stuff done which is just sweeeet.

Anyways, I’m gonna get back to editing and SEO’ing some blog posts.

Southwestern Company Videos on Youtube

Nate de la Piedra — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:04:33 +0000

So, playing around on YouTube I found a bunch of great Southwestern Company videos. Includning spoofs on American Idol and Pimp My Ride which are just hillarious. Also are a couple of videos about the sizzler. The sizzler is the flagship prize where students can win an all inclusive trip to a very warm beachy place during the winter.

Southwestern Idol

Pimp My Bag

video by Estonian students participating in Southwestern Summer program

Today has been hectic

Nate de la Piedra — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:18:55 +0000

I helped put up canada.southwesternsummer.com. At the same time I’m getting everything ready for the beta launch of our blogs on Friday which is a bazzilion little things. Add in some busy work, SEO’ing content for blogs/new sites = little time for me to play on the Internet today

But on the fun side, my boss is making me get in touch with the Nashville Business Journal so that they put me in their “New to Nashville” feature which is kinda neat.

Southwestern Alumni Get Products at Cost!

Nate de la Piedra — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:10:01 +0000

I had no idea about this until I got here, but did you know that anyone who participated in the Southwestern summer sales program can buy any of the books we sell below cost!

Yeah crazy, I KNOW. I was happily surprised so I thought I’d share the news.

You can see the current Southwestern book line and alumni price by logging into the Southwestern Company Alumni Community and clicking on the “Alumni Product Brochure” link that is on the right side bar.

Parent: Southwestern Company Inspires Me

Nate de la Piedra — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:07:35 +0000

I got this email today from Trey (our Director of Communications here at the Southwestern Company) that I just wanted to share.

Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:09 PM
To: SW Customer Contact Center
Subject: Just Wonderful…

To Whom It May Concern,

Hi, my name is Brandi Holliday. I just purchased some of your
books and I have to say, I am IMPRESSED! I am so excited for my two
children who are 4 and 8 to be able to have access to something like
this! I know having these books available to them is just going to
make learning so much easier and fun.

My saleswoman asked me why my childrens’ education is so important to
me. I answered honestly. Not only is it because I want them to
succeed in life, but also because I didn’t finish highschool. I
received my GED and tried a technical college but it just wasn’t for
me. Or so I thought. Seeing the materials and what they had to offer
as far as making learning easy and fun makes me want to give college
another try.

I also wanted to let you know how great my saleswoman was. She was
amazing! She explained everything very well and wasn’t pushy or

aggressive. My kids and I just loved her. She was just fantastic!

Thanks again for offering this great product to my family.

Sincerely,
Brandi Holliday

This customer e-mail is about Kimberly Cornell from Texas A & M in her
second year. This IS why we are in the business! Kimberly is leading
by example and defines what it means to be service-minded. It is amazing
what affect a student dealer can have on someone! Way to go Kimberly!

Trey Campbell, APR – Director of Communications
The Southwestern Company

hey

Nate de la Piedra — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:01:34 +0000

I’m showing Deanna how to blog.

Busy Work

Nate de la Piedra — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:16:49 +0000

So I’ve been having a lot of fun playing on the internet this past week doing a “full assesment” of our online brand (ie, googling various search terms and finding EVERYTHING I can about the Southwestern Company, good or bad).

Today, not so much fun. I’m transferring content from our existing microsites to our new microsites/blog, finally got Google Analytics access so going through metrics, and helping a co-worker upload (and properly tag) our entire database of pictures to flickr.

Ugh, no creativity today, just “to do’s”.

But I did find a new picture that I’m going to start including in emails once they reach critical mass

Awesome things happen at the Southwestern Company

Southwestern Company Tubes Comes Alive – MUAHAHAHAHHAHA!

Nate de la Piedra — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:11:34 +0000

I’m not going to go over what “series of tubes” is or why this blog is called that (it’s in the About the Southwestern Company Tubes). As my first post, I just wanted to expand a little bit about why this blog exists, although that’s also in the About the Southwestern Company Tubes page.

I was hired as the Online Resources Manager for the Southwestern Company. This blog is simply my thoughts and experiences as I go along making the tubes safe for book slingers and a way for my friends and family to see what I’m up to. It’s not an “official view” (that’s what the corporate blog is for) or a way to get an “insiders opinion” on the company. I’ll mention my opinion of the Southwestern Company but only as a sidenote….(like now) The company is forward thinking enough that I will be working within the Communications Dept and not IS. We have a great team in IS that is managing the technical end of our website, so there is no need for me there. Instead I will be coordinating with the different depts to optimize our research, coordinate online communication and outreach, and organize a corporate blog.

I sold books during the summer as part of the Southwestern Company’s summer program back in 2001 and also 2002. I had a very successful first summer and not so hot second summer selling books. Don’t get me wrong, during my second summer slinging books I still made a ton of money (especially for what a college student can make) and even bested my first summer of selling. It’s just that during my second summer with Southwestern, I got distracted became “off-schedule” which basically means I started putting in a lot less hours and consequently lost the potentional to make an absurd about of money.

So now as the prodigal son I’ve returned to help the company build an online brand. Okay, not really like a prodigal son because I never worked as a swine herder and haven’t gone broke, but it sounds catchy!