United Airlines find out the Power of Social Media
It was reported on the BBC website on July the 10th that 'A strung-out musician who blames United Airlines for breaking his prize guitar has taken revenge by writing a song that has become a YouTube hit.' Today this news story has made the national morning BBC breakfast news in UK.
The musician, Dave Carroll blames United Airlines for breaking his $3500 Taylor guitar and following a long fight for compensation has released the first of 3 Music videos aimed at United Airlines on YouTube
The video to-date has received 3.5million views and has over 25000 positive reviews along with almost 17000 comments on the video. The times has reported that within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines’ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million. Which, incidentally, would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars.
United Airlines are trying to claim that "His video is excellent and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity to ensure that all our customers receive better service."
It will be interesting to see if the other two parts of Carroll's trilogy will have a similar global impact? - But a more pressing question is, are you using Social Media to support and promote your brand?