Recently, there was a grand example from Nova Scotia (my home province) that makes it clear to businesses and consumers exactly how social media has changed the way these parties interact.

Dave Carroll , a musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia, had his guitar broken in the spring of 2008 when his band was on a United Airlines flight.  United refused to acknowledge responsibility or pay for the damages even though there were witnesses who saw the ‘luggage” being thrown around during unloading.

After many months of trying to get United to accept responsibility for the damage (it cost $1200 to have his guitar fixed) Dave finally decided to take his frustration out the best way he knew how… via his music.
He wrote a song called United Breaks Guitars and posted it on YouTube. Within 5 days he had over 2.5 million hits and on the 4th day United called and offered to settle with Dave. All he ever wanted was for them to accept responsibility (his guitar had been fixed long ago) and asked them to donate the reimbursement offer to a charity (approx $3,000), which they did.

Social media is forcing companies to be more open and transparent – they can no longer hide behind their office doors.  In the days before Twitter and Facebook and Youtube, Dave’s struggle with United would have ended at some point with that final No.

United probably felt they had to respond as many of their existing and potential customers (the video has reached over 4 million views now and the response over 225, 000) could also ‘hear’ what was happening. They simply couldn’t hide behind their doors for this one. Sometimes companies don’t need to get into the mix, but this time I agree they should have.

I think they should have owned up to their error when it happened and paid for the guitar repairs.  Look at what it has cost United in the end .. a lot more than the $1,200 I am sure – once you add in their legal, PR and marketing bills.

What about the consumer? In this case the consumer has had millions view his talent online, he’s had several interviews on TV and radio and sales of his albums and song downloads  have increased; none of which I am sure he expected to happen when he decided to use a song to describe his experience.

Social media is making companies think twice about how they represent themselves, but it is twofold as I really believe people/consumers need to do the same. Twitter and other social media channels are now allowing one to speak to many… and many people can listen to one.

Businesses and consumers both have a role to play and if we all stand by our products and services with a mission to deliver great things – it will work out for everyone.

You can read more about Dave’s story and his about this entire experience on his website

Technorati Tags: business, Social Media, social networking, Twitter

Tags: business, Social Media, social networking, Twitter

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 2:47 am and is filed under Marketing, Social Media, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.