http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nestle/24287259392
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaJjPRwExO8&NR=1
Why not just Nestlé need to relax control of their image.
It's a tough gig nowadays being a brand manager. You are trying to meet the corporate guidelines but there's a great mass of the unwashed public who don't care a fig about corporate design or anything else.
Nestlé is the latest to earn the wrath of consumers many upset by it's use of palm oil which as far as radicals are concerned makes them orangutan murderers.
The social media crisis was sparked by Nestlé trying to have a YouTube video by Greenpeace UK on Palm Oil pulled.
Nestlé's problem developed on it's Facebook group it is trying to control how people act, becoming snarky with it's detractors and trying to control it's image.
Just because a blog or Facebook page allows control don't mean you should use it to control. Trying to control how anyone does anything within the social media space is about the biggest faux pas you can make.
The thing is that Nestle can't control Youtube, blogs or Twitter where global commentary of the ensuing social crisis is unfurling.
It's a salutary lesson to companies that if you business practices don't match the expectations of a large group of the public that they now have the power to slam you.
If a company does something that a large group of people on the internet don't like, at some point they will be slammed on the internet at which point it becomes almost impossible to control.
In the old days of issues and crisis management it was easy to keep the lid on stories through relationships with the media and use of the legal system. But these techniques don't cut it anymore.
A bigger question whether or not the treatment of companies like this by radicals should make them shy of engaging social media. It's a difficult question to answer and probably the best social media debate on the planet right now.
Obviously with the size and growth of the online audience social sites can't be ignored. But no doubt the Nestlé experience will be making many companies shy of engaging with their public.
Do you have any strategies for a way forward on this issue?
It's a tough gig nowadays being a brand manager. You are trying to meet the corporate guidelines but there's a great mass of the unwashed public who don't care a fig about corporate design or anything else.
Nestlé is the latest to earn the wrath of consumers many upset by it's use of palm oil which as far as radicals are concerned makes them orangutan murderers.
The social media crisis was sparked by Nestlé trying to have a YouTube video by Greenpeace UK on Palm Oil pulled.
Nestlé's problem developed on its Facebook group it is trying to control how people act, becoming snarky with it's detractors and trying to control it's image.
Just because a blog or Facebook page allows control don't mean you should use it to control. Trying to control how anyone does anything within the social media space is about the biggest faux pas you can make.
The thing is that Nestle can't control Youtube, blogs or Twitter where global commentary of the ensuing social crisis is unfurling.
It's a salutary lesson to companies that if your business practices don't match the expectations of a large group of the public that they now have the power to slam you.
If a company does something that a large group of people on the internet don't like, at some point they will be slammed on the internet at which point it becomes almost impossible to control.
In the old days of issues and crisis management it was easy to keep the lid on stories through relationships with the media and use of the legal system. But these techniques don't cut it anymore.
A bigger question whether or not the treatment of companies like this by radicals should make them shy of engaging social media. It's a difficult question to answer and probably the best social media debate on the planet right now.
Obviously with the size and growth of the online audience social sites can't be ignored. But no doubt the Nestlé experience will be making many companies shy of engaging with their public.
Do you have any strategies for a way forward on this issue?
