Protest songs CAN make a difference
When I hear the words ‘protest song’ I immediately think of some gnarly old hippy wheezing into a harmonica spouting wordy and ideological rubbish. And musically at least, this song is not much better, but perhaps it will mark the day social media gets taken seriously.
For anyone unfamiliar with United Breaks Guitars, its the work of a musician namd Dave Carroll who was moved to record it after United Airlines, er broke his guitar and were unsympathetic after doing so. Essentially a letter of complaint set to music, he posted it on YouTube and it got a lot of hits a week or two ago.
Since then, United’s share price has fallen by 10 per cent and mainstream media has suddenly shown an interest, with even BBC Breakfast running a story on it today. Is the fall in share price just down to the song? Of course not, although the publicity generated has not done United any favours in what is a difficult time for the business.
But it does bring social media and how companies manage their online brand and corporate reputation much more under the spotlight. When people start connecting YouTube videos to falling share prices (accurately or not) then business leaders will turn their attention pretty sharply to addresing this.
A few months ago Ruder Finn surveyed inhouse PROs about digital communications and a majority were still struggling to see ROI. Perhaps looking at it from this different persepctive - what happens if you don’t pay close attention to your brand online - will scare people into seeing its value?
Tags: Brand, corporate reputation, social media, YouTube
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Comments (5)
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 am Posted by Tim Hoang
Reminds me of this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPSJW8ri34o
I can’t believe United have let the story run, something as simple as an apology and a statement saying they’d be more careful would suffice (as long as they let people know they were doing it)
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 am Posted by Paul Allen
I know, why didn’t the CEO just record an apology and post it as a response? straight forward stuff really…
If I was the United boss I’d record a rap, lay down some phat beats and put Dave Carroll straight on a few things…like his song is rubbish and doesn’t deserve to have been seen by 180 million people so maybe it was for the greater good that United broke his stupid guitar
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 am Posted by Nick O
Clearly, the PR machine at United is failing badly. An apology and a new guitar would have sorted it out in no time. This could have been very easily turned around from a bad story to an enormous PR win it if was handled properly and United would have come out smelling like roses.
But unfortunately, still, many big companies don’t realise that every customer now has a voice and potentially a following if they can harness the web properly. A single complaint now means a lot more than it did 5 years ago.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 am Posted by Paul Allen
Haven’t heard much from United actually,be interesting to get their thoughts on this. Who’d work in customer service these days huh? United haven’t covered themselves in glory here but its a tough old job, as like you say, one complaint means sooooo much more now
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 am Posted by Nick O
It is so easy for a company to apologise for a specific incident and therefore not be in too much trouble litigation wise. I’m sure the threat of admitting blame and then being sued is a big concern.
But I often read on twitter or facebook about people being pissed off with a certain internet provider or their new phone company doesn’t work etc. I’m pretty sure I’ve done it myself. People will often be automatically subdued by an apology and a freebie.
Clearly their monitoring is awful as is their response.
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