Nestle is the latest company to run afoul of social media users, and they’ve managed to do it in a manner that’s captured negative attention all over the world. In reaction to a Greenpeace ad accusing the foodmaker of sourcing palm oil from companies that destroy orangutan habitats, fans stormed Nestle’s Facebook page and began leaving a barrage of comments.
This alone was a cause for concern, but it was the abysmal crisis management skills of whomever controls the Facebook account that took things to a whole new level. A quote from the ThoughtGadgets blog explains what went wrong, starting with a post on the Nestle Facebook site:
Nestle: To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don’t post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic – they will be deleted. Fri at 2:26am
Nestle received 190 complaints within 24 hours on Facebook, and thousands of tweets reaching hundreds of thousands of consumers. You see, the surest way to tick off users of social media is to delete their comments. Yes, by the old standards of 20th century law, brands have a right to protect their intellectual property. But social media comprises fluid networks of users sharing and retweeting and mashing up material. Brands no longer command media channels or the spread of memes; if you want to win, you have to give users room to play.
Things didn’t stop here, as the Nestle rep proceeded to respond to user’s posts with in an extremely abrasive tone. Someone at the organization must have come to their senses Friday afternoon and this was posted:
Nestle: This (deleting logos) was one in a series of mistakes for which I would like to apologise. And for being rude. We’ve stopped deleting posts, and I have stopped being rude. Fri at 1:29pm
Nestle’s hackneyed attempts to stifle comments and images did the opposite of what was intended. Instead of decreasing interest, it loaded another controversial topic on the back of the ongoing environmental debate and created massive amounts of ill will with the general public.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/