Digg, a social news website where people share and discover content from across the Internet, has increasingly become an outlet for political opinion. The huge popularity of stories about Google’s recent refusal to continue censoring its Chinese search results a and AT&T’s refusal to waive the charges on SMS messages sent to Haitian disaster support organizations both illustrate this point.
Digg users strike back at AT&T's refusal to waive fees sent to Haitian aid organizations
Digg’s cornerstone functionality is the voting of stories up or down, respectively called digging and burying. Many stories get submitted every day, but only the most Dugg stories appear on the front page. In this way the Digg community collectively filter out the best and most newsworthy stories.
There is an interesting trend emerging on Digg: Digg users are beginning to digg pages which agree with their political beliefs. They are digging so as to say “yes, I agree with what this article says and I mark my belief publicly with a Digg”.
Web users are voting with their diggs, (a handy play on words also fuels this process as, intuitively, readers “dig” the idea).
Digg's users support Google's threat to move out of China
By way of example, Google yesterday announced that they will no longer comply with the Chinese government’s insistence on censoring the content of their search results within China. The Chinese government’s actions have long been a point of contention for the typical Digg user (tech savvy, gen Y, liberal) and so it’s no surprise that this news was popular with the Digg community. Many of the stories submitted received huge amount of digs despite being run-of-the-mill press releases. The x-factor for popularity wasn’t the quality of the websites themselves – it was the political appeal of the news to the Digg community.
In digging a story the politically concerned web user helps promote his cause, since every digg will increase the story’s popularity and exposure, especially since an appearance on Digg’s front page brings over 50,000 new visitors to a site in 24 hours.
Whatsmore, a digg has a more subtle effect. There is a concept in persuasion known as social norming, a type of peer pressure for ideas or behaviour. For example, if you read that 98% of people think house prices will go up this year, you are strongly influenced to think that this is so, to the point where you may doubt your original contrary (albeit correct) beliefs. By digging a story your voice is added to the collective voice of the community. 1,253 web users agree with a story – so maybe I should too. It seems illogical, but this is how many people’s minds work.
This is the future of politics. Digg has spoken.
In July 2009, a Canadian musician named Dave Carroll uploaded a song onto Youtube about his terrible treatment by United Airlines. Within 10 days the video had 1.7 million views and United Airlines’ share share price dropped by 10%. Learn about how social media platforms have shifted power back to consumers, and how you can use these to get your own revenge on bullying companies.
Dace Carroll: Canadian
What happened to Dave Carroll?
In the spring of 2008, I was traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my bandmates witnessed my guitar being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers. The $3500 guitar was severely damaged. United Airlines didn’t deny the experience occurred, but for nine months every person I communicated with put the responsibility on everyone other than themselves, and said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. The last person to finally say “no” to compensation was Ms. Irlweg (), and I promised her that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.
Hear the story from the man himself in the original United Breaks Guitars video:
United Break Guitars
How the video went viral
Dave Carroll’s lighthearted approach to seeking justice contrasts with the all-too-familiar balding couple screaming at a frightened customer service representative. Dave’s approach is not only kinder and pleasant to the ears, but also more far effective.
Dave uploaded the video onto Youtube on July 6, 2009 and featured it on his website. The video received steady traffic. By the next day, United Airlines acknowledged that they had become aware of the video in their tweet:
The real spike in traffic came when mainstream media became aware of the song. The story was featured on prime time news broadcasts and print media outlets across North America and on many of the traditional media’s online news sites. Between July 8 and July 10, the story appeared in approximately 339 mainstream online news sites and approximately 777 blogs. During this period, there were also over 2000 Tweets. Considering that some of these twitter feeds had over 1 million watchers a lot of people heard about United Airlines policy towards broken guitars.
The cost to United Airlines
The economist reported that United Airlines’s share price dropped by 10% during July, wiping $180 million off the value of the company. With lyrics like, “I should have flown with someone else, or gone by car, because United breaks guitars.” , you can see how this turned into a public relations nightmare for United Airlines.
The attempted cover-up
The consumerist reports that United Airlines tried to pay Dave hush money, but Dave refused, asking United Airlines to give the money to charity instead.
In his video statement, Dave says that:
United has been in contact with me, and they have generously, but late, offered us compensation, and I’m grateful for that, but like I said before, I’m not looking for compensation. And if they would chose to give that money that they were thinking I might want to a charity of their choice, I’d be very happy to see that happen. I’d only ask that they’d share that news with us as to where that money went.
Davie reaches celebrity status because of the video
Dave’s song now has 6.6 million views on Youtube and all this exposure has really “drawn attention to my band and my music.”Traffic to the website has jumped and CD sales are through the roof.” Indeed, like all America successes, Dave’s too has spawned a sequel, United Breaks Guitars 2.
The lesson for consumers: Link to this article and threaten with song
Forget about arguing and sending angry e-mails and letters. Instead e-mail public relations a link to this article, and promise them you’ll write a song about your experience and upload it on Youtube for millions of potential customers to see. You’ll hear back – I promise.
The lesson for businesses: Negative publicity spreads like wildfire through social media platforms
All it takes for a customer to create viral bad press about your company is a high enough degree of stubbornness, $15 worth of video equipment and a couple of free hours on a Sunday afternoon. These evangelists don’t need media contracts. They don’t need any money. Any and every customer could create a PR nightmare for you and so the only safe way to do business today is to treat every customer as if the whole world is watching. Because the truth is, the whole world really is watching.
Credit: David Fitzgerald, web savvy physiotherapist in Ireland and expert in computer related injuries
