Tracksuit CEO

By Daniel Hope

As if any of the major airlines needed another headache, United Airlines so alienated one of their customers that he felt forced to produce this song and video to get their attention:

Dave Carroll had the misfortune of band’s instruments manhandled by United baggage handlers, as he and the rest of his band watched on in horror.  Apparently throwing a $3,000 guitar into the luggage hold of an airplane can actually do some damage, which is absolutely what happened.

Carroll tells his story here of his 6 month saga of endless blame shifting and telephone transfers.  It all ended when a Ms. Irlweg denied his claim.  To which he responded:

In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg I told her that I would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and share them on YouTube, inviting viewers to vote on their favourite United song. My goal: to get one million hits in one year.

At the time of this post this particular video is at 3,913,468 views!

This must be an incredibly painful lesson for the battered airline to learn but it is such an important example of how powerful word-of-mouth communication can be.  In this case the word-of-mouth communication has been amplified by social media.

As social media becomes increasingly popular, this type of thing is going to happen more often.  Each social media outlet is becoming its own little hometown where good news spreads fast and bad news spreads faster.

In the small town of social media it is more important than ever to actively listen.  A common misconception about social media is that it is only for pushing out information.  Social media is great for pushing out information, but if you are not using it as a listening tool then you may end up like United’s own Ms. Irlweg, immortalized in song and video for hassling the very people who keep her company afloat (if only just barely).

Twitter is an excellent listening tool, with its @ reply and # hashtag searches.  A friend of mine joked about Rush Limbaugh’s Twitter account claiming that he has not once updated it because he is such a good listener.  But seriously, all of this web 2.0 media is about facilitating conversation.  Conversation is not just about listening or talking, it is a careful balance of both.

The next time you interact with others on any social network think about your actions and decide if they are a good balance of both talking and listening.

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