I realise that for many of your seasoned observers, this is old hat.
However, having been told about this at lunch yesterday by Caroline’s Daughter and Son-in-Law, I thought I would have a look into this, as it appears to be part of a growing trend of smart people employing social media to get heard.
Long story short: United Airlines breaks musician’s guitar; musician claims restitution; gets stonewalled by United; writes song which goes viral on YouTube; United caves in; lots more people buy musician’s music.
The story can be read about here, on the Musician’s website; the video is below. At the time of writing, it has had 4,225,709 views.
There’s a bit of doubt about this here and here, but I think you get the general point! The fact that there is a debate about this demonstrates how important Social Media is becoming in determining reputations, and tipping the balance of power in favour of consumers.
The Times summarises the situation from United Airlines’ perspective:
The company is trying to put a brave face on things. On Twitter it admitted its mistake and announced that it was donating $3,000 to a music charity. A spokeswoman tweeted that she liked the video: “It is excellent and that is why we would like to use it for training purposes so everyone receives better service from us.”
And for anyone considering consumer complaint videos on YouTube in the future, Mr Carroll recommends the key of D.
Last week there was a bit of a to-do when a teenager, working as a Summer intern at the investment bank Morgan Stanley, was suddenly propelled to his 15 minutes of fame by the MS PR machine. His report below was published and kicked off a mini media storm (well ok, some City analysts were interested).
[btw, it’s worth clicking on the ‘full screen’ button on the top right of the Scribd widget, as it makes the documents easier to read. Click on the cross (again top right) to close full screen mode].
To be fair, these are concise and interesting observations, and not having any bairns of my own, and Caroline’s having "flown the nest", for me it’s insight. Perhaps it’s also a minor tipping point in terms of Social Media being taken seriously?
Session Two: (Disturbing the Universe) #TDC – apologies to Curtis Wong, I thought Tara’s talk was the end of the session, and couldn’t fire up CiL again to cover Curtis… :$
This post sets out the work I have been doing with CONNECT North East which, in its own words, is:
”the newest branch of the highly successful CONNECT network, which brokers introductions between young technology companies and investors.
CONNECT North East’s role is to strengthen the links between the region’s young technology businesses and the people and organisations they need to know if they are going to attract investment and grow.
CONNECT North East facilitates introductions to encourage partnership working, joint ventures, knowledge transfer and financial investment.”
I have been working with John Sargent of The Ideas Mine, and Caroline Theobald of Bridge Club Limited to help them use Social Media to market the recent CONNECT North East Investing in a Secure Future conference, and better connect with their target market – i.e. early stage technology companies and start-ups.
Testimonial
Caroline Theobald of Bridge Club Limited said:
“We engaged Justin because we knew that some of the innovative companies that national government departments are interested in were more likely to respond to the conference’s networking opportunities if we made them accessible through their preferred media channels: ie blogs and tweets.
New media is something that I know very little about – just appreciate it effectiveness – and so we invested in the services of an expert. An experience that exceeded our expectations in terms of profile and user-group engagement.”*
In sum, I set up their blog, taught them how to use Twitter, and live-blogged at the Conference itself.
Live blogging session, flying the flag for the Brits (any other European peeps on the panel?)
PRESENTERS
Mike Butcher – TechCrunch
Mike Teasdale – Chinwag/Harvest Digital
Stewart Townsend – Sun Microsystems
Aleks Krotoski – Chinwag/UKTI
Nigel Eccles – Hubdub.com
DESCRIPTION
The European market with over 500 million citizens is an enormous single market, with the UK providing a natural first-step for US companies looking to expand East-wards. After all, we share (pretty much) the same language. Challenging economic times mean the search for lucrative new markets is more important than ever. Quiz the panel and discover what it’s like to do business in the UK and Europe, how to find partners, and stay gaffe-free. Get the skinny on the fast-moving tech, mobile and games scene. This panel is sponsored by Chinwag.
