Social media has become the perfect place for the public to express their negativity about a specific company. And these expressions of negativity do not always stay silent, they can become viral which could turn into trending. We do not want this to happen… or do we? I am going to give you a couple examples of companies getting negativity through social media and you tell me if they handled it well or if you would’ve managed it differently.

Example one: UNITED AIRLINES. Canadian musician Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell were flying United Airlines in 2008. They had a layover in the Chicago O’Hare Airport where Carroll overheard a fellow passenger say that she had seen luggage handlers on the airport tarmac throwing guitar around carelessly. When he and his bandmates arrived to their destination in Omaha, Nebraska he was saddened to discover his $3,500 Taylor guitar was severely damaged while in United Airlines custody. He reached out to several Untied Airlines employees and filed a claim with in order to get compensation for his damaged guitar. They informed with, though, that he had failed to make the claim within the “standard 24-hour timeframe” and was now ineligible for any compensation. Carroll battled it out with United for 9 months with no change, so this led to Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell to write a negative song towards United Airlines and post it on YouTube in July 2009. The song was an overnight success for Carroll and a public relations nightmare for United. It racked up 150,000 views in one day, and three days later that number rose to over half a million views! The media started reporting the story and United’s stock price fell. United Airlines was now prompted to right their wrong. They offered to buy Carroll a new guitar, but he responded that it’s too late and to donate one to charity. United $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk institute of jazz as a “gesture of goodwill”. What are ya’lls thoughts on how United Airlines handled this situation?

Example two: KENNETH COLE. On December 10, 2010, the Arab Spring began. Arab Spring is term used for the revolutionary wave of demonstrations, riots, protests and civil war in the Arab world. In the midst of it all, Kenneth Cole tweeted “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.” This went viral instantly with a surge of negativity and backlash. It’s a known fact that Kenneth Cole tweets directly himself. He does not have an employee do it. Do you think he knew that this tweet would get a rise out of his followers and that was his plan to publicity or no? The company apologized by tweeting, “We weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historical moment.” I don’t see an “I’m sorry” in that apology though. What is y’alls thoughts on this?

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