So have you seen the video on YouTube about the guy who says United broke his guitar? Lucky for them (not!), he was in a band and turn the whole fiasco into an instant YouTube hit. Currently, it’s up to 3.8 million views.

Once again, as we have seen other companies flounder who are not watching what’s being said about them online (Dominos’ unpleasant YouTube video, Motrin’s ad that offended moms across the country, etc.), United totally mishandled this situation and got railroaded in the process.

With all companies, sometimes customers get frustrated with your product or service or they have a bad experience. Goodness knows, we’ve all been frustrated with the airlines. I think that’s why this video took off so quickly. We’ve all been through some kind of negative experience with airlines and so the world rallied behind this guy for standing up to them and actually getting attention for doing it.

The problem isn’t that someone was unhappy with your service (that’s going to happen to anyone); the problem is how you handle it. So what should United have done?

1) Been monitoring in real time what was being said about them online, so they could have reacted in a matter of hours at the longest. A day is a LIFETIME in the world of social media.

2) Immediately reached out to this guy, apologized and offer to replace his guitar.

3) Within a day or so (or as quickly as they could possibly get this together), took the stance of laughing at themselves and created a funny video of their own, owning up to and apologizing for the situation, in response.

4) Place both videos on their Web site and share via their social media outlets. Yes, you heard me right! They should put this guy’s video on their site. Why? Because this shows the right kind of attitude social media calls for. They’d be embracing this. And why not? Get a little positive press out of all the PR this guy has already generated for them. Right now, they just look like too little too late (see this YouTube video from the United guitar guy about United’s response).

5) Already have well-working social media vehicles in place, such as a Twitter account, a blog, a YouTube channel, a page on Facebook, etc., where they can address this issue, share their video, etc. Take a nod from Southwest, whose Twitter account matches the quirky tone they are known for, and JetBlue, as well. Both are using Twitter very effectively to serve as customer service tools to solve passenger issues, for fun and for PR. Delta, on the other hand, doesn’t quite get it. But that’s fodder for another blog post. ..

What do you think United should have done after this video? Share!