Musician Dave Carroll flew United about a year ago. Somewhere along his trip his $3500 guitar was broken. He immediately complained to three flight attendants, who all couldn’t be bothered. Over the next year, he complained to and dealt with several different company representatives up and down the corporate food chain. Nine months later, he finally received an email from a Ms. Irlweg stating that United will not offer any type of compensation or replacement. They didn’t deny damaging the guitar, but rather based their decision on the fact that he didn’t speak to the right people at the right time. But the story doesn’t end there.

Mr. Carroll decided, as a musician, he had one last resort. And he even informed United of his intentions beforehand. In his own words:

In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg I told her that I would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and offer them for free download online, inviting viewers to vote on their favourite United song.

My goal: to get one million hits in one year.

And, of course, United ignored him. So he wrote and posted his first song, United Breaks Guitars. The video has gone viral and has been viewed, commented on, and shared all around the web. He says a second is almost done, and a third is on it’s way.

Wouldn’t you know it, now United has now announced that they “contacted him directly” to “make things right.” They could have saved themselves the effort and the bad press from just taking care of Mr. Carroll’s problem at the start of this mess. And it would definitely be cheaper than whatever they are going to agree upon now.

With the airline industry as competitive as it is, no carrier needs this type of negative publicity. The Internet gives every customer a great big megaphone to attack you when they are mistreated. So do right by others, and they’ll do right by you.

United Breaks Guitars (backstory)
United Breaks Guitars (video)

Author, marketing strategist and all-around dynamo David Meerman Scott recently posted 30 tips for writing a successful ebook. As the author of books such as World Wide Rave and Cashing in With Content, he knows a lot about using the web to spread your message and grow your business.

As David puts it:

Ebooks are one of the most effective forms of new marketing. Ebooks have tremendous perceived value and therefore people tend to pass them on. They help solve problems and therefore buyers appreciate the content, branding the writer as someone worth doing business with.

Take a look at his tips, and consider writing an ebook about a topic you’re passionate about. (And of course, keep an eye out for an upcoming ebook from Websterism.)

Web Ink Now: So you want to write an ebook? 30 tips for success

The latest ad features Denis Leary, who stars in Rescue Me on Fox’s FX channel. One thing jumped out at me during the ad. They discuss the fact that you can embed Hulu videos on other websites and share them online. When they mention blogs, they show one of the laptops visiting a site called “What Would Denis Do.” Any fan of online gossip sites would recognize this as a parody of popular blog What Would Tyler Durden Do?, or WWTDD.

Most viewers probably wouldn’t catch on to this inside joke. But for those who get it, it shows that Hulu gets it, making it appear the site is run by people who spend too much time online, just like them. It also guarantees a mention not only on WWTDD, but also other blogs. It’s a great way to make this commercial go viral.

Audiences often respond to a marketer who seems like they are one of them. And it pays to think about how your marketing can be tweaked to include little details that would help it spread virally. Take a look at the full ad below, and think about what you could do to help your message spread.