More than 9.25 million people have watched this video! But why is it important?
Dave Carroll is a Canadian folk singer, and his $3,500 guitar got damaged by the bag-handlers of United Airlines but his complaints were fruitless as the company refused to pay any compensation and furthermore the customer service agents were rude. After 9 months of complaining he decided to post a video on youtube and since then its viewers have skyrocketed. Dave Carrel got a hit song and it even was one of the most downloaded dongs in itunes UK. On the other hand, United got a PR crisis as more people came out to complain and their reputation got increasingly tarnished.
This example goes on to show how social media has become so influential in the business world. How a simple tweet, blog or in this case video, can damage and potentially destroy a brand. In the past a complain like this would have gone largely unknown, you would rant to your friends, but the issue would stop there. Now the consumer has the power to go against big companies; they can complain in social media sites like facebook, twitter or youtube, and be heard around the world.