Website Marketing NY, Quit Your Day Job (At JetBlue Airlines) But Don’t Forget The Beer, A-Rod Hits 600: What your business can learn from newsworthy bridge burning
Posted by Salem Global on Aug 10, 2010
As the Grateful Dead said: “I’m going to Hell in a bucket baby, but at least I’m enjoying the ride…” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwSaOBHinQ) Thus said the JetBlue Employee of the century, flight attendant Steven Slater, after getting hit in the head by a piece of luggage that an impatient passenger on flight 1052 arriving from Pittsburgh to New York’s JFK Airport couldn’t wait to get down. But the way that it all went down was so classic that it is already being called “pulling a JetBlue.” So awesome that after arguing with the specific passenger, Slater then got on the PA system, said some profanities, cursed out everyone in the plane and just like James Bond, activated the emergency exit chute, and ran away down the tarmac, through the terminal, onto the bus, into his car and headed for home. But wait – it gets better. I am not exactly sure how this was reported and what Slater was thinking, but the climax of this whole story was that right before he made his dramatic departure, he actually grabbed a couple of beers on the way out. Now tell me folks, is there ANY better way to quit your job?
And tell me folks, don’t you think that as of this writing there are no fewer than 782 related articles when you search for “JetBlue” in Google news? And more blogs and articles are definitely coming. This is almost as good as when Kevin Smith of Clerks/ Silent Bob fame Twittered about being called fat on a Southwest Airlines flight. Social media and the web have done wonders for businesses large and small. And remember it doesn’t all have to be good news. Just news. As the old PR saying goes, any PR is good PR. Just realize how viral this story has gone in the last 24 hours and how much more it will go in the next 24 hours…
So your business should be creative and try to figure out what is going to really shock the world. What do you think that is? I am talking about Ripley’s Believe It Or Not material. This is your homework for the week. What can your company do or stage to get news coverage so vast that everyone is talking about it. That will get more hits to your website than you can imagine. JetBlue is a good company. This guy just got fed up. That’s all. No real harm done. I am sure flight attendants get hit every day in the head. Even more get cursed out. But today’s story takes the cake. There is a debate in my office whether this video is real or not: What do YOU think? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvxodp-GpFA.
Book of the week: “All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker” by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback – http://www.amazon.com/All-Almost-Entirely-Story-World/dp/0312360371/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281458326&sr=1-8 – Making me think a little more about how I play my own poker hands. Your business can learn a lot about marketing and business development from this book. Taking risks and chances. Leveraging what you have…
Finally, yes. Alex Rodriguez has indeed joined the 600 club, but I have never NEVER seen a ballgirl (or boy) do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1liNz3QsAc – Did I mention that this was a ball girl? Oh yeah – the way that I got to this video was because Masato Akamatsu of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp also made an impressive catch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdpBNonxA4. (But NOT AS IMPRESSIVE AS A BALL GIRL!!!) Ok – last one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW0bb2wxH5Y, Brian Kownacki Leaps The Catcher for safe at home plate. Btw – check out CORRECT use of YouTube description with the url: http://www.sportingnews.com
So if you want to know more about writing true or false stories about your company, having them go viral, how to promote these stories to the benefit of your company and using social media to get the message out, email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call my office at 212-993-5828 or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. The call and consultation are free, the benefits could be priceless. (Thanks to Alan in my Tuesday morning Westchester networking group for that tagline – I like it).
