I had the distinct pleasure of meeting social innovator and musician Dave Carroll at an IT industry event in Melbourne recently. Dave's claim to fame - apart from being a great musician - is for a famous incident in 2009 involving United Airlines and his Guitar. I took a photo with him and he graciously decided to appear on my Realtweeple series, a set of 30 second videos on my ConnectGen Youtube channel introducing Twitter people I've met in person to my network.

In summary, the story is that United Airlines breaks his guitar on a routine flight, he gets zero customer service attention, he counters by recording and posting a protest song on Youtube called "United Breaks Guitars", gets over 10 million views and estimates say that United's share price dropped and lost millions in revenue as a result of the adverse publicity.

Hearing him tell the story LIVE was very impactful. It's a reminder to all businesses that a single voice in an increasingly connected world can make a difference. For me, it was a compelling reminder to LISTEN intently online and be PREPARED to respond appropriately.

How are you listening and preparing online? Comments appreciated.