However, I’ve recently spoken with people (outside the social web) about the United breaks guitars video and they didn’t know what I was talking about. Granted, this was a small sample of people, but I’d say a pretty good cross-section. (One group was the jury I sat with for a couple of days last week)

I say all this to point out that you are right in your assessment that bad publicity has a cost. But I do think there is a limit to that cost based on reach. Just a thought.

Really the point of the post was to prove that social media allows people to more easily provide a positive or negative review of something…and in an article I read today, a study showed that word of mouth recommendation is the #1 reason people use a product or service.