DISQUS

nateritter · 4 months ago

Well said! I agree wholeheartedly.

SirMichael · 4 months ago

Nice post, Jake. I think the impact is somewhat difficult to measure on this alone on a single variable.

If you look at this another way, there's a TREMENDOUS opportunity for a competitor to do better and offer a better alternative. That's where the risk comes into play. You point to Orbitz making it easy to book a trip. Yes, based on price, but mind you, those brands aren't really loved either.

I think the real message for the other brands is to see the power of this, embrace it fully (i.e. authenticity, transparency, etc.), or as Alan Wolk puts it, just Don't Suck. Couple that together and yeah, United, and every other major airline, would dedicate a lot of time in the board room talking about it.

Personally, I think that's where it ends for United (and American and Delta). Just talk.

stevethomas · 4 months ago

Jake,
I stumbled onto your site this morning on my Saturday morning ramble and was surprised to find your thoughtful post on the United Airlines Broken Guitar drama. Terrific line of reasoning. My partner just showed me the videos yesterday (clearly I'm the less intouch social media partner) and I had many of the same thoughts you had spinning in my brain. Having spent my formative years in PR for the Electric Utility business and now serving nonprofits I thought I knew exactly what was happening with United.

Something I haven't seen, again maybe I've missed it, is any sympathy for the United rep who is mentioned so much in the 2nd song. I had to feel sorry for her, holding the corporate line because it is her job and being vilified for it. Ouch.

Thanks for the multi-layer view. Simple isn't always the best way to look at this stuff.
I'll be back to your blog on a regular basis. I like the way you think.
st

Nick D. · 4 months ago

Thanks for the thoughtful dissection of my post on the Vanno blog. Your points are well taken. I agree that UAL Corp. marketing - probably at the VP level - was involved in crafting the (weak) public response to the guitar incident and briefing it up the UAL corporate ladder. But at the "C" level - particularly CEO - and certainly board level, a company as complex and damaged as UAL has so many other issues on its plate that another customer complaint - no matter how well publicized - just doesn't get much attention.
My real broadside was aimed at the myopic and self-congratulatory nature of social media punditry. Most of these people have never been near - let alone worked in - a large, complicated operating company, and don't realize that when it comes to dealing with customers, there is no such thing as an original sin. The idea that somehow social media will change the behavior of corporations forever just because millions of people watch a cute but critical video and then take a few seconds to post a snarky comment somewhere is naive, to say the least.
And lest you think I'm just a cranky old corporate guy who doesn't get social media, I'm a co-founder of a startup - www.vanno.com - that is trying to use social media to measure company reputations. So I'm fully invested in the value proposition. But I've also seen firsthand the enormous range of issues and events that C level execs at big public companies deal with every day, and have to smile when I read the kind of grand pronouncements that are the currency of most social media and "business" blogs today. Most of these writers are looking thru a tiny porthole at companies and assuming that they have the whole view. They don't.

Cheers,
Nick DiGiacomo

Jake McKee · 4 months ago

Nick, I think we're basically agreeing here. I'm with you that a CEO might not stop his day over something like this. But my point is that I've been continually surprised at how much CEOs can and do focus on "little issues".

And yes, the social media punditry can raise welts from the backpatting, but at the same time, it's pretty impressive to see what can happen. That's my point about the follow-up post showing the luggage tag "I <3 baggage handlers". It's creating cultural phenomenon... something that simply is NOT good for the industry or United.

But to say that these things aren't already changing the corporate culture as well as corporations specifically is crazy. It's probably not taking as much effect as some like to proclaim, but it absolutely is taking effect.

Good conversation!

Newyorkjobs · 4 weeks ago

Thanks I agree that UAL Corp. marketing - probably at the VP level - was involved in crafting the (weak) public response to the guitar incident and briefing it up the UAL corporate ladder. But at the "C" level - particularly CEO - and certainly board level, a company as complex and damaged as UAL has so many other issues on its plate that another customer complaint - no matter how well publicized - just doesn't get much attention