Laura Reis of Reis & Reis feels airline social networks are “ridiculous”

In Part 2 of this exclusive interview, Laura Reis discusses her frank opinions on how airlines should (and shouldn’t) be using technology.

Laura is the president of Ries & Ries, an Atlanta-based marketing strategy firm that she runs with her father Al Ries – the branding guru. Together, they have written four books on branding, with a fifth one coming out in February. She is also a frequently quoted marketing expert in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Advertising Age, and other publications. Finally, she shares her thoughts on airline branding at SimpliFlying.

Social networks? Airlines are “kidding themselves”

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“Who’s going to be on an airline’s social network? People will go to Facebook or MySpace if they want to socialize online.” This is what Laura feels about airlines’ foray into the social networking world. She believes that exceptions like Virgin might just pull it off, because of Richard Branson’s PR genius and bravado, but for any other airline, it’s “just ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense at all”.

As you must have realized from my previous articles on the topic, I’m a believer in the use of latest technologies to build the brand further. Yes, it’s important to maintain focus and cater to a specific group of people – but it’ll be a grave mistake to ignore the medium completely.

Why CEO’s shouldn’t blog?

We all know that blogging is time intensive. There have been examples of airline CEOs and key executives pulling off blogging successfully, like David Neelman (former CEO of JetBlue) and Randy Tinseth (VP of Marketing at Boeing). But Laura feels differently.

Laura believes that traditional PR outlets are better for CEOs to concentrate on, as it gives them a better leverage for their time, as opposed to investing that time in blogging. Moreover, PR events anyway get a lot of attention from other bloggers – so that should more than make up for it.

Again, I’m personally on a different page. I feel that having a top-level executive blog online creates a personal rapport with the company – not just among the customers, but also among employees. Malaysia Airlines and JetBlue are good examples of this.

In the interview, Laura and I also talk about proving ROI for online efforts, ways of controlling the brand online and airline brand benchmarks. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this interview. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

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