Lots of people always try to quantify the ROI of social media, how many extra sales will it get me? How much extra traffic will it get my website? Are these the right questions? There are certainly ways to measure the effects of social media but concentrating purely on these measurements misses the point. Social media is much more than just trying to sell a few extra products. Social media is about connecting with your audience and if you don't know what people are saying about your brand things can go horribly wrong, horribly quickly.
The latest company to find this out is United airlines. In spring 2008 Dave Carroll lead singer of the relative unknown band Sons of Maxwell was travelling to Nebraska to go on tour, he flew by United airlines. During the flight his $3500 guitar was damaged, he spent the next 9 months talking to United Airlines trying to get compensation but was refused at every turn. So after becoming increasingly frustrated with United Dave wrote a song and recorded a video about his experiences. In a world without Social Media this probably wouldn't have mattered much, lucky we live in a world where social platforms are readily available. The video was added to Youtube; So far, this video has received:Over 3.8 Million viewsOver 26,000 people have rated itOver 17,000 have left comments all supportive with a large number saying they will boycott United from now onThe Youtube video has now made its way onto traditional media including:BBCNational News AustraliaRolling Stone MagazineThe Daily MailThe TimesThe song has also been released on iTunes and as of today is the Number 1 country track and if you care to do a quick Google search you should fine in excess of 6 Million other Websites, blogs, comments and links to the Youtube video. So if you are thinking about the value of social media think how much damage has just been done to United by its use.
Brands often spend enormous amounts of money creating and protecting there brand image, but often very little time money or effort is spent on the social media side of the brand. Social media is changing the dynamic between brands and their consumers. Never before have individual consumers had so much power and they are only just starting to exercise it.
Can any company truly say they get Customer service right 100% of the time? If they can't then they need to engage with social media in order to try and prevent something like this damaging their brand.
Link to Dave Carroll's site for the full story
Link to the Youtube video
Pingback from Power to the people, United Airlines feels the power of social … « Social Media
United's initial response to Carroll's video was reasonably smart - they acknowledged the problem & announced that they would include it as a case study in their staff training programme. Where they have fallen short is by refusing to participate in the social media frenzy surrounding the video - they have simply sat back and allowed themselves to be attacked. If I were advising United, the first thing I would recommend would be a video response from the CEO (in the style of Jet Blue), then a video featuring United staff members expressing their own point of view, ideally via an equally amusing song. And if they are feeling really bold, a guitar smashing contest hosted by Pete Townsend. As we always say, you can't stop the waves but you can learn how to surf.
Joe Hughes
Blogging for:
Member since: 09 Jun 2009
Last login: 04 Feb 2010
Total Posts: 13
