The social media phenomenon strikes again, and if you’re United Airlines, you’re probably not too happy about it.

While musician Dave Carroll was flying from Nova Scotia to Nebraska he had his Taylor guitar ruined. After spending months to get United to pay for the damage, Carroll had finally had enough.

Click here to watch Dave's video on YouTube. It's actually pretty good.

Here’s Carroll’s version of the story, direct from his website:

“In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.”

I conducted a search for a press release from United Airlines about the incident, but came up empty. That said, United Airlines did eventually reach out to Mr. Carroll to pay retribution on the guitar. Mr. Carroll declined and requested the airline donate the money to a charity instead. The airline took him up on his offer and donated $3,000 to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz. (Twitter graphic provided courtesy of Social Media Today.)

What can marketers take away from this fiasco? Here are a few lessons learned:

1. The secret to social media is to stay ahead of the story: Once a story starts spinning out of control, it’s too late. The trick is to get out ahead of the story so you can participate in the conversation. (Note, I didn’t say, “…so you can control the story” because there is no controlling a story in social media.)
2. As most politicians know, the problem isn’t necessarily the crime, it’s the cover-up: Corporate America should learn what politicians learned after Watergate — the cover-up is often worse than the crime. (Important Note: In this case, there was no cover-up from United. But they didn’t seem to address the issue quickly or vociferously enough.)
3. Deflect the “Gotcha” scenario by owning up to your mistakes: The media is on a constant hunt for “gotacha” stories. It sells newspapers and ratings (and, we admit, drives visits to blogs like ours). When you’re confronted by a gotcha story, your best option is to embrace it, own up to the portions that are accurate, and even have some fun with it.
4. Fight social media with social media: As we just mentioned, the best approach is often to have fun with the story. Perhaps United would have done better to release a YouTube video of their own with a Mia Culpa that said “We’re sorry, Dave. We’ll try to do a better job next time.” (To watch our 60 second video on this topic, click “How to Use YouTube to Promote Your Product or Service.”)

The Bottom Line:

There’s no way to control social media, all you can do is participate in the conversation. United Airlines and other corporations should do a better job joining in on the conversation so that they can let their voices be heard.

Think of it this way — if you’re at a cocktail party and someone is saying something negative about you, would it be better to avoid the conversation or to be part of the conversation so that you can provide a more balanced viewpoint?

(As challenging as it may be, we’d suggest participating the conversation so that you can provide a more balanced viewpoint.)

Saturday, July 18th, 2009, 11:11 am   |   Social Marketing, Social Media  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback