"I don't always get social media" - Bergsrud
 

Probably not what you want to hear when your SVP of Marketing gets on stage at a major industry conference and starts talking, right? But that is apparently what Mark Bergsrud said, right after saying he was proud of United's social media presence.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewan...06/image21.png

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewan...06/image22.png

:eek:

Nice find. :D

Where's the CFO for good measure? I bet he thinks people who use Twitter are over-entitled.

One would think that you could make a pile of money by giving the C suite at UA a big discount on brain-mouth governors.

Just a thought. ;)

Dave

My goodness! I'm embarrassed for them. Where did they get these guys?

/facepalm. Seriously I would help them for free at this point.

Admits he doesn't get it, yet he's proud of it. So disappointing.

It's pretty clear that neither PMUA nor PMCO much understood social media to begin with. @:-)

At least the "twares" PMUA used to run were somewhat on-target, but their Twitter presence completely devolved into a bunch of inane Kettle reminders and ads for the same; I recall once seeing the same tweet about when to arrive at the airport three times in a single week.

To play devil's advocate here, what exactly was the context? I don't think there's anything wrong with what he said, even coming from a SVP of Marketing. I'm sure he doesn't always understand social media.

Who can predict whether one particular stirring on Twitter, Facebook, etc. will garner praise, indifference, or revilement?

For example, if Chris Elliott speaks, everyone listens. If Mary Jane Everywoman posts a "United Breaks Guitars" video, will it go viral or will no one hear it? If it does become popular, will United feel heat from it or will people blame poor Mary?

What if United posted a video entitled "We Didn't Break Her Guitar, Delta Did After We Interlined It For Mary Because She Misconnected (Our Fault, Sorry Mary) In Chicago, But Here's A New Guitar Even Though It Probably Doesn't Make Up For The Loss Of A Loved Instrument, We're Sorry And We'll Try To Do Better In The Future"? Would United be lauded for their heartfelt attempt to make things right? Would they be scorned for making a music video? Would people find the absurdly long song title charming, witty, or stupid?

Yeah, United execs say some stupid things. I'm not convinced this is one of them. Social media is very unpredictable as we see on a daily basis. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to look at cat videos.

He would be correct, how much are they paying for it? Just like pillows, water, etc on a plane.

Agreed. Context is key here.

I think it is CW that nobody understands how to monetize social media. What's the true benefit? I too don't quite "get" the point.

Not every activity a company undertakes needs to be about direct monetization. Social Media's effects are almost entirely indirect.

It's the difference between customers hating your brand and customers going out of their way to experience your product.

IMO, VX gets social media in a way that UA never will.

It looks like UA was listening.. (I had to include the response :D)

http://i.imgur.com/iVLML.png

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

This company is not just out of touch with their customers- they are out of touch with reality

I think use of social media for most businesses is overrated. This includes airlines.

Yes, they need a strategy involving it, but it needs to be down on the list as to where they spend their $$.