Familiarize yourself with United Breaks Guitars. A good place to start is by viewing and reading the following; some provide background, while others could be used in your analysis. This list is not all inclusive — you must complete your own research as well. This list should give you a good start.
Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, recorded “United Breaks Guitars” in response to a lack of accountability by United Airlines over a broken guitar. There were 2 additional songs also posted on YouTube after the first song went viral. Here is the first
Read “Social Media is Here to Stay, Now What”(Links to an external site).Think about how each of Dana Boyd’s ideas of Scalability, Persistence and Invisible Audiences can be applied to this case.
Read Social Media Lessons: United Airlines Breaks Guitars (Links to an external site.)
Read United Breaks Another Guitar — Social media hype goes full circle (Links to an external site.)
Beyond the scope of this assignment, you might also be interested in the diversification of Dave’s career, as a result of this viral video. He is now a somewhat sought after motivational speaker. See Dave Carroll: An Inspiring Keynote Speaker. (Links to an external site.)
2. Conduct further research.
3. Construct an outline of your analysis, showing where research resources will be utilized, i.e. assembled in categories. This is in preparation for writing Part 2 analysis due later.
Sample Analytical Approach
Think about the main point of your upcoming analysis. This will be driven by what you discover. A sample approach to analyzing the case might include the following:
situation,
the initial efforts for restitution and results,
how/why social media became the avenue for public exposure,
the resolution(s),
the impact on United,
impact on other corporations’ customer service.
Other considerations:
Was the social media effort successful? Why or why not?
How was the case used in corporations and academia?
How was Dave Carroll’s transition from a singer to an inspirational speaker a result of social media activity?
4. Submit the outline showing the resourcchoes you plan to incorporate.
