The Big Man from New Jersey

Good for Kevin Smith being able to use social media to his advantage. His tweet about being removed from Southwest airlines, created so much media coverage that he was the 23rd most searched term on Google. This not only embarrasses Southwest, but also helps Kevin Smith, because he can now highlight his new film coming out, Cop Out. Even by me writing this Mr. Smith is getting free PR for his film (even though my audience is incredibly small). This incident may have been annoying for Mr. Smith, but the amount of free media attention is priceless.
The use of social media for the dual purpose of complaining about an airline and getting coverage for your business has been done before. Dave Carroll a musician from Canada had his guitar broken while traveling on United and this incited him to write a song titled, "United Breaks Guitars". Mr. Carroll released a music video on Youtube that has had over 4 million views. This incident not only hurt the airline company, but also created free press coverage for a small musician.
These two examples show how consumer complaints can actually make a difference and the lowly consumer can have their voice heard potentially throughout the world. It is hard to say if these two incidents were done primarily for free media coverage or they truly wanted to try to make a difference. Either way it should have hopefully caught the attention of all industries, to realize that their consumers have the power to have a real affect upon them. Power to the consumer.