Welcome to the biggest social media/PR disaster yet. This one is a DOOZER. Food giant Nestle, who is currently under pressure from environmentalists raging about deforestation and palm oil, became the subject of a swelling (and still growing) storm of user comments and attacks via Twitter and especially Facebook. The cause? Operators of the Facebook page took a hostile approach to consumers/critics who were targeting the company for poor environmental practices relating to the use of Palm oil and deforestation issues.
This is the type of incident that destroys a company. When 20 years ago it took several years to reach 50 million viewers, we are now hitting those numbers easily with the speed of the net and the way data travels in much shorter periods. Companies used to fear word of mouth because of the damage it could do. Customers wouldn’t complain to the company but instead to their friends..and the story gets repeated, and you lose dozens of customers or more. Nestle is now fighting it on a global scale as hundreds (likely even thousands or more) of users are pumping their fists in opposition to the food corporation for their supposed poor business practices, questionable ethics and alleged disregard for the environment.
So you’re not sure how it all started? It’s really not important when you look at it from a social media/rep management perspective. Other blogs are running down the information super highway trying to explain the reason why people are outraged. It doesn’t matter why they are outraged, it just matters that they are and these people are lashing out on a global scale against Nestle.
Just about every company has a facebook fanpage, and most companies either hire a PR firm or use someone internally (or several people) to make updates to their social media. Unfortunately, the individual(s) responsible for updating the fanpage for Nestle weren’t able to hold their tongue. They mixed personal stance and personality into a corporate identity – and that’s when the fuse was lit.
While Pr disasters have happened before, this is the first time in the history (it’s small, but has great depth) of social media that such a massive explosion has occurred in the comments of a Facebook business fan page. Facebook, along with other web 2.0 platforms are some of the hottest marketing tools right now for engaging customers and promoting products/services as well as spreading a company message. Unfortunately, Nestle is currently witnessing the debacle and mudslide of operating such a public forum. I’m not quite sure whether this is going to be remembered as a single, poorly managed backlash from users or a marked “epic fail” (as users are calling it) on behalf of the Nestle corp.
One thing is apparent – by looking at the stock of Nestle during this explosion today, it’s obvious that these incidents cant directly effect a company if they mismanage their PR – especially in social media.
While the shift in their stock looks small, the drop occurred parallel to the ignition of the incident. When you consider a drop of even a few cents across millions of shares you’re risking a considerable amount of money.
Comments have been all over the board, from one end of the spectrum to the other:
“but it’s OK for you to alter the face of Indonesian rain forests? Wow!”
…to a much nicer
“I like some Nestle products so I qualify as a ‘fan.’ I would like Nestle to make them even better by removing palm oil. I would like to enjoy my Kit-Kats without feeling responsible for rain forest destruction and orangutan deaths.”
Unfortunately for Nestle, the number of supporters were drowned out and outnumbered by the sheer number of angry users. It was the equivalent of a digital mob. Having been under fire consistently throughout the day, the Nestle rep handling the fan page content finally apologize for snapping at the company fans. “This (deleting logos) was one in a series of mistakes for which I would like to apologize. And for being rude. We’ve stopped deleting posts, and I have stopped being rude.”
Setting aside the cause, blame and who is right or wrong in this situation this is clearly showing the darker side of social media and the fan page. This medium is something that was intended to be an opening for fans to show their support and has evolved (de-evolved?) into a glorified billboard for critics attacking a company representative who is clearly in a panic over taming the mob outrage.
At this point, you wonder how long damage control will take and just how much it will cost Nestle. I can only hope that, as news spreads, the situation doesn’t cause a panic and pucker-factor in other businesses that have reached out to users through social media. We don’t want to walk on eggshells around our customers, that’s certainly not how anyone should have to do business.
Better to take the incident from Nestle and learn from it, grow from it, and identify ways to improve our own business integration with social media.
Lest we suffer a similar fail..er…fate.
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Joerg Weishaupt is a 48 year old entrepreneur, software architect, search engine optimization and social media expert. Joerg has been building a lot of profitable Internet businesses since he put his first website online in 1995. He is also one of the founders and partners of Social Media Science LLC, where he launched a content syndication network called SYNND.
Joerg resides in a small, quiet community about 100 miles outside of Munich, Germany. If you ever seek to find him, look for where the cows gather.
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