Comments on: United Shares Plunge On… Bad SEO?

By: Miami SEO

Miami SEO — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:47:04 +0000

All the more reason to have a full spectrum ORM solution ready to deploy. United’s learn quite a few lessons this year about maintaining their brand online….after all….they break guitars!

By: Miami SEO

Miami SEO — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:07:43 +0000

Wow. What a sticky situation. But definitely something to get fired and sued over.

By: lEVON

lEVON — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:52:16 +0000

What a mess for United Airlines! Great post on the power of SEO and how one mistake can lead to a cascading shower of media melodrama.

By: Sara Holoubek

Sara Holoubek — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:51:28 +0000

Great points, Paul. I spent a few hours trying to tack down exactly who re-published what, and when, and ran into a bit finger pointing session.
While most of us put search behavior, web content and SEO in the marketer’s toolbox, the gravity of this situation reminds us that Google’s goal of organizing the world’s information can have a much greater impact.

By: Rich Gordon

Rich Gordon — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:20:20 +0000

The screenshots have been found and made public.
I just posted an article that reconstructs the timeline and — I think — explains how all this could have happened. I have some ideas on what the most important lessons are:
http://www.readership.org/blog/2008/09/how-old-news-moved-market-united.html
You may also find this post interesting:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=150236
Rich Gordon
Medill School, Northwestern University

By: Paul Barsch

Paul Barsch — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:39:06 +0000

Sara, thanks for this post. Here’s a few of the takeaway’s I’ve gleaned, let me know if you agree.
1) With Google in the process of archiving historical (pre-internet days) runs of newspapers all over the world, this is bound to happen again.
2) The “crediblity” of the rumor came from the reposting by Lehman – a well known brokerage firm. As consumers of information, it’s easy to blame the source, but at the end of the day, the onus is on us to question the source, possible slant, and accuracy of any published information.
3) With how complex and interconnected firms are today via globalization and integrated financial markets, the power of rumor is stronger than ever and can destroy a company’s shareholder value in hours–maybe minutes. I think that’s why Treasury and SEC have sternly warned that companies/individuals who create and propagate unfounded rumors (in the attempt to profit from them) will be investigated and likely punished. Companies need to set up listening posts to monitor and respond to the chatter in real-time.