The biggest public relations nightmare that companies used to have to worry about was a 60-Minutes news crew showing up in the lobby.

 
Now any customer or employee with a grievance, can be just as powerful as an investigative news crew. Especially if that customer or employee knows how to use the social media.
 

Case Study – United Breaks Guitars

 
Musician Dave Carroll turned an unfortunate experience into a catchy, funny song. He published it on YouTube, where it received millions of views, was reproduced thousands of times on the web, and was covered by major network media. “United Broke My Guitar.”  If you’re not familiar with the story, scroll to the bottom of this page and you can see the full story, including the music video!
 
What can a company do about it if they’re being spoofed, mocked or roasted?
 

1) Be aware of it.

 
You don’t want to find out about this sort of thing after the fact.  Observe the social media regularly and search for your company and product names on major social media outlets. Monitor YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs) you can see that a video or blog post is out there and notice that it’s becoming popular.
 

2) Assess the damage.

 
The web is full of metrics! You can see how many times a video has been viewed on You Tube, (more than 3 million at this writing.) And you can see how many Google hits the topic has gotten (3,010,000) and how many times it has been mentioned in other social media.  
 
(Note – Our Aviation Digital Marketing Program generates reports for companies – you don’t need to do all the monitoring and research yourself!)
 
Also determine the severity of the “allegation.”  In this case, baggage handlers manhandled a beloved Taylor guitar.  The guitar was severely damaged, which is a terrible thing for the owner, who happened to be talented at creating popular YouTube videos.  But as public relations disasters go, it wasn’t tragic.   Will this incident make people change their travel plans?  Maybe if they’re traveling with an expensive guitar!  But that’s a fairly small percentage of the traveling public.
 
3) Develop an action plan.
 
In this case, United (as mentioned in the article below) did a great job of acknowledging the issue.  In fact, they conceded that the “video was excellent” and they plan to use it in internal training.  They have been in discussions with Carroll, who created a follow up video statement and is promising a new song.
 
Whatever media or method you use, it’s best to keep this at the level of a dialog and not a shouting match.  Keeping a sense of proportion and a sense of humor is critical. Your company might decide to create an internal response. You could start by investigating the incident and making changes to internal procedures.
 
You might choose an external response – like responding to reporters questions. You could create a blog post or other social media response) depends on the first two steps – being aware and assessing the damage.
 
Social media happens quickly.  The more quickly you’re aware of it, the more options you have!
 
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Guitar player’s revenge a smash hit

July 11, 2009 – The Sydney Morning Herald

Dave Carroll strums away his frustration.Dave Carroll strums away his frustration.

A CANADIAN musician who accused United Airlines of breaking his prized guitar has taken his revenge, writing a song that has become an internet hit and a public relations disaster for the airline.

Dave Carroll composed United Breaks Guitars and posted it on YouTube after he said the airline damaged his treasured Taylor acoustic at Chicago’s O’Hare airport last year.

“We were sitting at the back of the plane with the band and a woman who didn’t know we were musicians yells out, ‘Oh, my God, they’re throwing guitars outside’,” Carroll said.

After months of trying to get the airline to pay compensation and help repair the instrument, valued at $C3500 ($A3853), Carroll changed tack.

“I had this sort of epiphany,” he said. “I’m going to write songs about your airline and I’m going to put them on YouTube and talk about my experience.”

On Thursday, United Breaks Guitars had nearly half a million views on YouTube and had been covered by the major news networks. The video features the folk-rockers looking on in horror as “United” ground staff clumsily play catch with a guitar case and pound it with mallets.

A United Airlines spokesman told the Los Angeles Times the “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”.

The American Federation of Musicians said Carroll’s case was “not unlike the classic David and Goliath story”, and highlighted a common problem for musicians. “With this one song, David has remarkably been able to accomplish something that lobbyists have been trying to resolve for 10 years,” said Bill Skolnik, an AFM vice-president.

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