United Breaks Guitars viral analysis
On July 10, I wrote a blog posting called Beware of the viral nature of media.
It dealt with the United Breaks Guitars video, which went viral across the web and mainstream North American media.
Joe Boughner responded to the posting quite rightly questioning how much damage was actually being done to United Airlines’ brand. Joe also hoped that someone would do a six-month post-analysis on the story.
Well, we decided to do a one-month analysis of the United Breaks Guitars story and have some interesting results.
Whether long-term damage was done is still up for debate, especially since our analysis covers only the month of July.
That said, you can find the complete analysis on the Resource Center on the MediaMiser website. You can access it without providing personal information.
For those who don’t want to read it, here are some of the findings, which are backed up by the analysis in the report:
- Even though blogs and Twitter may have alerted traditional media of the story, traditional media outlets supercharged the story and made it a real issue for United Airlines.
- The majority of micro-bloggers (Twitter), tend be heavily influenced by the mainstream media.
- Do not underestimate the influence of blogs. Even though the popularity of other social media is on the increase, and the number of people writing blogs may be waning, many are still relying on blogs for information.
- Not surprisingly, United Breaks Guitars dominated the news for United Airlines during the month of July.
Chart showing the different media interaction over time.
Hey Brett,
Sorry it’s taken me so long to chime in. I was counting on some sweet VIA wi-fi this weekend but their system was down.
Anyway, I really appreciate the followup on this issue. Your numbers are interesting in the way they show that while some would like to proclaim the death of traditional media in favour of tools like Twitter, it still seems that social channels draw heavily from ‘trusted’ sources.
What this means for the future of paid media is a question that deserves a study of its own, of course.
Where I’m still left wanting, though, is in some sort of analysis of the actual tangible impact of this negative press for United. I realize that goes a bit beyond MediaMiser’s scope but that’s where most of my skepticism stemmed from.
Yes, the buzz around the videos was intense and, as you have shown, not limited to the Twitterverse the way that other ‘scandals’ were. For that reason, I’m more inclined to believe that there was a hit to United’s bottom line.
But unless the damage to the brand translates into something tangible from a business perspective, it’s hard to see how this is more than a tempest in a teapot.
Joe, I really appreciate your comments. It helps us develop better products and services.
As for measuring negative press, our software does have the capability of measuring tonality. However, for this project, we were more interested in the viral aspect of the story.
That said, for the next project we’ll add it in when it’s not so one-sided. Almost every single story was negative for United.
Like you, I personally believe that the mainstream media is still well entrenched as the gatekeepers of opinion and information and they will be seen as the trusted source for awhile.
As for a “tempest in the teapot”, over the long term, you could be right. We’ll keep monitoring the situation. Maybe this is where social media comes in and keeps the embers burning.
That said, I guarantee you, every time someone from United walks by a guitar, they cringe.