Nestle's antisocial media
Social media has the power to bring success, fame and fortune, but it also has the power to provide a forum for your harshest critics.
That power is blasting Nestle squarely in the chops, as thousands bombard their Facebook page with negative comments on their use of non-sustainable palm oil.
And it all started with a Greenpeace campaign aiming to highlight Nestle's use of the ingredient.
This is a really good example of social media gone wrong (or right, should I say?).
In the digital age, things like this can "go viral" easily. It starts with a message, perhaps some picture or a clever (but rather explicit) video (you have been warned) to illustrate the cause.
Before long, blogs pick up on it, it's Tweeted, then a mainstream media outlet or two catches a whiff and before you know it everyone is talking about (and sharing) the said video/article/pictures with their contacts.
The internet is becoming one of the most effective forms of protest. This is demonstrated by the fact that Nestle, almost immediately, promised action on the issue.
It's much more powerful than people in orangutan suits holding up banners and giving out flyers - not that they weren't doing that as well.
The most important part of a protest is for word to spread. Greenpeace knows this well, with their elaborately costumed and prop-laden protests - I call it media bait.
Nestle reportedly briefly changed their Facebook page status to "Social media: as you can see we're learning as we go. Thanks for the comments."
Still learning indeed. I would have thought a huge juggernaut of a company like them would have a couple of "social media experts" by now.
A lot of corporations are already catching on. For example, Telecom's Twitter account was running hot during the XT outage crises.
Not that it helped get the network back up, but I think people like to feel they are getting through to someone, it reassures them somewhat.
I personally think Nestle should just leave the orangutans alone and use a sustainable oil. They are cool animals and I hope to teach one to use an iPhone one day. We can only dream.
Oh, and speaking of Southeast Asia, I wandered around the Southeast Asian market in Welly over the weekend. Great food, and definitely some great photo-ops. I thought I'd share this HDR:
What do you think of Greenpeace's internet protest tactics? When have you voiced strong opinions or protested online? How important is it for companies to have an online presence, to deal with criticism, etc.?
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Nice pic. A blog entry on all the technical aspects of how you achieved this would be interesting.
Nestle should have learned from the Chevrolet interactive advertising disaster. They made some stunning video footage of a new SUV available online and allowed people to make their own commercials about this great new 4WD.
Of course it backfired and the footage was used to create anti-corporate propaganda pointing out the huge carbon footprint and environmental impact of one of these vehicles.
There are some great examples of it still around the internet and the incident stands as one of the greatest corporate FAIL's in understanding social media in recent history.
nice photo luke - very atmospheric.
im liking the new age of 'corporates behaving badly' getting burned in social media forums and ive done my fair share of naming and shaming. unfortunately it often doesnt change things, most companies will lay low, knowing that it will blow over soon enough and the maddening crowds will soon be waving fiery torches and pitchforks at the next hapless corporate citizen
or as in my case fight back at the negative criticism with threats of being sued, like i had with this blog post - http://www.pogostick.co.nz/the-blog-post-that-got-me-sued.html
Something has to be done about corporate greed and the trashing of the planet and if this blames and shames effectively then so be it.
It's not just the rangas either - have you seen what the palm oil trade is doing to elephants?
Awesome article. The more publicitiy about this issue the best. If you want to take action please go here to sign the petition run by Auckland Zoo to make labelling of Palm Oil in NZ and Oz compulsory! http://www.gopetition.com/online/31757.html
'...learning as we go...?' surely if that was the case, they would have taken advantage of the learning opportunity when Cadbury got smashed for the same thing. I don't like finding out I've been party to something as distasteful as this (forgive the pun? maybe not) after I've already bought the product. Well, not any more - even if they change. They knew what they were doing when they chose to use palm oil and changing simply cos they got caught isn't good enough - if there hadn't been a public outcry would they have changed? I don't think so!
How holier than thou.. blah blah blah. Talk about bully tactics - well for all the critics out there who can't wait to put the boot in - glasshouses..stones get the picture.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the feedback. Just wanted to tell Paul #2 that I did a post on HDR last year some time, which is here: http://bit.ly/cXqAky if you want to know how I make those images. Cheers, Luke
Tone down the tone mapping man, you don't need everything on full. Also incredibly unrelated, but I guess that fits in with a social media story. Well done HDR's and a sweet tutorial can be found at stuckincustoms.com.
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Hi Luke..."we're learning as we go" Nestle says - but why learn the lesson so painfully and so publicly as I point out? http://prdisasters.com/five-lessons-from-nestles-facebook-pr-disaster/