TUI UNIVERSITY
Angelica M. Johnson
Module 3 Case Study
ITM 501 Management Information Systems and Business Strategy
Prof. Sam Biragbara
March 14, 2014

Introduction
The purpose of this case study is to examine whether the availability and use of social media on the internet really provides businesses with new and different useful information. We will explain the reasons why we feel this is true. Additionally, we will provide a counterargument to my original position, and finally, re-address my original position in light of the counterargument.
Businesses and Social Media
The availability and use of social media on the internet absolutely provides businesses with new and different useful information. The key question is; are businesses ready to use social media, and the information exchange opportunity it provides, to their advantage? The internet and social media is a fast moving train; businesses can either get on that train, deliberately evolving in this frightening economy, or get run over by the train and die a sure death (Rodriguez, 2011).
What Not To Do
United Airlines Customer service is something all businesses know is important; however, not all businesses invest and prioritize customer service in their vision or strategic plans. If a business is a service or product provider with a well known name and brand, not paying attention to customers could be a big mistake. One such service provider, United Airlines, committed one of those big mistakes. This Fortune 500 multibillion dollar corporation underestimated the power of the consumer. More importantly, United Airlines underestimated the power of an unhappy customer with a public forum in the form of social media (Milliken, 2010). In July of 2006, a little known musician named Dave Carroll from Canada posted his music video on YouTube. The video was a parody of his experience while flying with United Airlines. The story is about how Dave Carroll and his band were traveling from Canada to Nebraska. Before the flight, the band noticed the baggage handlers on the tarmac were carelessly throwing around their guitar cases and unfortunately, Mr. Carroll’s Taylor guitar was broken. Upon arriving, he immediately spoke to three different airline employees whom treated him with indifference and gave him the run-around. For almost a year he pleaded for reimbursement of the cost to fix his guitar. United Airlines passed Mr. Carroll on to different managers, gave excuses, and finally told him they would not fix or replace his guitar (Carroll, 2009). Dave Carroll and his band found this treatment by United Airlines so egregious, they decided to let the rest of the world know just how badly they were treated. Being creative people, they wrote a very catchy song about their experience and spent about $150.00 on a music video which they posted on YouTube. This video struck a chord with many people, perhaps many who have experienced similar injustices by a service provider. It started with friends of the band tweeting the video; which was then shared by thousands and posted on Facebook, picked up by bloggers, and ended up with the mainstream media. Within a month, over 4.6 million people viewed the video (Hanna, 2010), and after eight months, a total of eight million viewers watched (Milliken, 2010). Unfortunately, United Airlines did not take corrective action until it was too late. Even their own employees were embarrassed and angry at the airline’s reaction or lack thereof (Hawkins, 2009).

Lessons Learned
United Airlines
Eventually, United Airlines did reimburse Dave Carroll for the cost of his guitar, which was $1200.00 and an extra $3000.00 was donated to a music school. The company ultimately acknowledged their mistake and used Twitter as their means of communicating their response to the situation. They publicly apologized and promised to use the video as a training tool. For Mr. Carroll, this incident not only brought much attention to his complaint, it simultaneously brought much attention to his music. He actually credits the experience as a “break” in his career (Hanna, 2010).
While United Airlines might not have initially picked up on the importance of social media and how it could provide businesses with new and different useful information, they have actually begun to monitor social media and participate in information exchange regarding their brand with customers. They learned that a little preventative action goes a long way when it comes to resolving customer complaints correctly the first time. Many other companies had already acknowledged the benefits of social media and are leveraging this technology as well (Milliken, 2010).
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems learned their lesson about using social media when their reputation was impacted by a single person. A potential employee received a job offer as an intern with their company. She tweeted to her 40 followers about a “fat paycheck to do work she would hate.” The tweet was quickly passed on to many others and soon had the attention of Cisco managers and eventually the Oprah show. Soon after that incident, the leadership at Cisco decided they needed a crisis action team that would decide if an incident on social media would cause mild, moderate, or severe harm to the company’s reputation. They wisely invested in social media experts to monitor and engage in communication about their brand (Owyang, 2010).
Adobe
Another Silicon Valley company, Adobe, stepped up their social media engagement as well. They found that if you do not listen to customer complaints, they will shout, then get louder, and soon multiply. There was a forum being used by Adobe patrons to post gripes about their products, and the company decided to ignore them. Within a very short time span, hundreds of posts appeared and the company feared this could hurt their brand. To Adobe’s surprise, unofficial advocates of the company started to post solutions on their behalf. Those advocates, Adobe calls them “evangelists,” engaged with Adobe on getting substantive responses regarding the products back to unhappy customers. Working together with these loyal customer advocates, they were able to filter and prioritize complaints, eventually resolving all of the issues. Additionally, they took these solutions back to their product development and customer support operations to improve on their processes, services, and products (Owyang, 2010).
Zuberance
Our final lessons learned come from yet another Silicon Valley company, Zuberance. This company uses various social media for their public relations, advertising, and promotions. Like Adobe, they learned that investing in relationships with their advocates can be quite beneficial for business. In fact, when an advocate sends an offer on a product to someone they know, the conversion rate is five to ten percent higher than if the brand makes the same offer to that customer. Advocates will target their family, friends, coworkers, and peers about a product because they know that person, their likes and dislikes. Those customers are much more likely to trust that advocate over a company trying to sell a product for a profit (Owyang, 2010).
Social Media Tools While there are perhaps hundreds of ways social media and the internet can provide businesses with new and different useful information, we will examine just a few. Anyone who watched the Academy Awards a few weeks ago knows that Twitter has become a very popular way people can share experiences, thoughts, and ideas. As of 2010, it was the tenth most visited site on the internet (Garfield, 2010). Entertainers have already started using this tool to attract more fans and followers than ever. Businesses can do the same, some already are. It’s an excellent way for organizations to tap into live information sources and connect to people like never before. They also get first-hand and candid feedback about their products and services; and for now, it’s all free (Garfield, 2010). There are also free social media aggregation tools. For example, Flipboard and Hootsuite, these management tools allow companies to consolidate all of their social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest in one place. All posts and updates are accomplished simultaneously, which saves time and money. They also provide analytics giving businesses valuable insight into customer preferences, feedback, and demographics (Eisenberg, 2012).
Counterargument
As of yet, the consequences of United Airlines’ blunder have not actually been quantified. Although the company received a lot of negative attention, did they actually lose any money over this particular customer complaint (Hanna, 2010)? We know videos can go viral, but news fades fairly quickly and will be overcome in a flash by the next hot story. Businesses have many ways of getting and providing information; perhaps the internet and social media gives us too much information. Perhaps many customers are not using the internet and still prefer to read paper. There are still many uncertainties about social media and the internet, maybe businesses should wait until more rules and structure are put in place.
Conclusion
The purpose of this case study was to assert that the availability and use of social media on the internet does provide businesses with new and different useful information. We have explained the reasons why we feel this is true. Additionally, we have provided a counterargument to my original assertion. Social media has certainly provided both businesses and customers with new and exciting ways to communicate, engage, and provide feedback; not to mention the speed with which it all can happen. My hope for the future is that both parties use this power for the good of society versus a tool for destroying each other and our economy.

References
Carroll, D. (2009). United Breaks Guitars. Music video posted to Youtube. Retrieved November
27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&feature=channel
Eisenberg, J. (2012). The Top 5 Social Media Managing Tools. Social Media Today. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/jen-eisenberg/549608/top-5-social-media-managing-tools
Hawkins, A. (2009). United Breaks Guitars - Inside Response From United Airlines. Video posted to Youtube. Retrieved March 12, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDoSFqqL4WI Garfield, B. (2010). The Point of Twitter. Onthemedia from National Public radio. Transcript
Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/11/26/03 Garfield, B. (2010). Interview with Eval Williams. Onthemedia from National Public radio.
Transcript Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/11/26/04 Hanna, J. (2010). HBS Cases: United Breaks Guitars. Working Knowledge: Harvard Business
School. November 29. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6492.html?wknews=112910 Milliken, J. (2010). Brands and Social Media Participation; United Breaks Guitars.
Coreographytv. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNpry5iSTBo&feature=related Rodriguez, N. (2011). Ten Myths About Social Networking For Business. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/nealrodriguez/2011/08/10/ten-myths-about-social-networking-for-business/
Owyang, J. (2010). Social Media, Crisis & Reputation Management. Coreographytv. Retrieved
November 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-7gDTk49k&NR=1