How viral events are changing the fields of knowledge management and image repair

My guess is that most people have seen the YouTube video, “United Breaks Guitars” created by the band “Sons of Maxwell” in 2009.  David Caroll, the lead singer, tells the tale of a 9 month long saga in which he tries unsuccessfully to resolve an issue with United Airlines over a broken Taylor guitar.  If you somehow missed the viral video, here it is:

United Breaks Guitars

As of the writing of this post, the video has been viewed over 13.7 million times.  The incident sparked many scholars to begin examining the way knowledge travels during viral events, and the way in which organizations must learn to operate within this new knowledge ecosystem (Hemsley & Mason, 2013). The speed at which information is disseminated during a viral event can leave organizations overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the repercussions.

In the case of the “United Breaks Guitars” video, the YouTube video was picked up by a popular blog just two days after it was created.  The blogger learned about the video through a Twitter user.  From that point the video was shared and re-shared through social media, and in just ten days it had been viewed more than 3.5 million times.  Because of the popularity of the video, traditional media outlets took notice, including London Times.  Within four days of the creation of the video, a Wikipedia page was created, and in just a couple of weeks it had over 1700 views (Wikipedia, 2012).

After the video reached 150,000 views, United offered to pay Caroll to essentially make the video go away.  At that point he decided his experience with United was about more than money, so he turned down the offer and suggested they give the money to charity (Wilson, 2011).  The winner in this situation?  Caroll was possibly the biggest winner- he now travels as a professional speaker discussing social media and branding.  He also created a website, gripevine.com, which is an online customer complaint platform that encourages customers and companies to resolve issues in a mutually beneficial way.

Interestingly enough, Taylor Guitars was also a winner in this situation.  After hearing about the viral event, they gave Caroll a new guitar.  They also made their own YouTube video empathizing with customers, and offering tips for how to travel safely with your guitar.  Way to use the situation to come out on top!

Viral events have led many companies to take part in “reverse mentoring” (Hemsley & Mason, 2013).  Reverse mentoring includes involving and retaining younger workers who best understand the changing face of social media.  These workers in turn train other workers who may not be as educated in emerging technologies.  Honestly, this strategy is the best possible way to keep up.  I’m in my 30’s, and even though I pride myself on keeping up with technology, I’m noticing I find out about up-and-coming platforms primarily from teenagers!  Utilizing younger workers is a brilliant way for companies to keep their finger on the pulse of the new “knowledge ecosystem”.

 

Sources

Hemsley, J., & Mason, R. M. (2013). Knowledge and knowledge management in the social media age. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 23(1), 138-167. doi10.1080/10919392.2013.748614

“United Breaks Guitars.” Wikipedia. N.p., 27 Feb 2014. Web. 3 Mar 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Breaks_Guitars&gt;.

Gripevine. N.p.. Web. 3 Mar 2014. <www.gripevine.com>.

Wilson, Richard. “A Public Relations Disaster: How saving $1200 cost United Airlines 10,722,839 Negative Views on YouTube.” Marketing Rocket Fuel. Sentium, Strategic Communcations, n.d. Web. 3 Mar 2014.

 

Things I’ve Found in Books

I consider myself fairly technologically savvy, but despite my willingness to try almost any new gadget, I’ve yet to jump on the Kindle/Nook/Kobo bandwagon.  It’s not that I’m opposed to e-book readers, in fact there are some things that make them very appealing.  I suppose it’s that there are a few things about physical books I would sorely miss.  Here is my top-five list:

1. The smell of a book- There’s just something wonderful about the smell of a book. I’m not sure if I feel that way because of all the warm memories I have of physical books, or because it actually has a pleasant smell, but either way, I like it.
2. The feel of the pages- I was a printmaking major in art school, so I have an affection for ink on paper.  My main area of printmaking was intaglio, which is copper etching (the same way they still make money, btw).  I went into art school as a very impatient person, and came out changed.  The change, in large part, came from my experiences with the intaglio process.  It takes time. There’s no instant gratification or way to hurry things along.  You must slow. down. and… wait.  When I feel the pages of a book, I am reconnected with those moments.
3. It’s hard to break a book- Okay, I admit it.  I sometimes read in the bathtub.  Okay, a lot of the time.  When you’re a busy mom of two boys, sometimes the bathroom is the only place to find some peace and quiet.  There are no distractions, and I take refuge there as often as possible!  I’ve never dropped a book in the tub, but I’d be nervous to take an e-reader near the water.
4. Books never die- Sure books wear out, but they typically last through a long car ride, or a trip to the beach.  They don’t have to be charged!
5. The ability to attach memories to objects- Though this would make some librarians cringe, you can’t write in an e-book.  I love connecting to my personal book collection by underlining, writing notes, and even…gasp…dog-earring pages sometimes!  Plus, the books I’ve received as gifts with inscriptions are special to me and take me back to the moment I first received them.  You just can’t make the same emotional connection with stored data.

Number 5 brings me to the real reason for my post.  I’ve been buying used books for probably close to 20 years, and I’ve found a lot of things hiding between the pages over the years!  I’ve found anything that could possibly be used as a bookmark, and about 2 years ago I decided to begin keeping the items and start a collection.  Well, I’ve filled up a shoebox, and thought it might be fun to share the items I’ve found.  It turns out I’m not completely original in this idea, as there are a few other sites/blogs out there with the same idea.  But nonetheless, I’ll share a few items from time to time.  Here are three to get us started:

 

This first item is a card from a Catholic funeral.  I didn’t grow up Catholic, but my husband did, and said these types of cards are common to be kept as a remembrance.  Here is the back of the card:

This photo was found in a book I purchased at a Goodwill.  It appears to be a guy posing with country music singer, Trisha Yearwood!  

 

The last item is a letter from an aunt and uncle to their niece after her graduation from college:

Maybe one day I’ll give in and make the switch to an e-book reader.  Or maybe not.