Nestle Gets Crunched on Facebook
Nestle made a big mistake on March 19. They asked their fan page followers to not misuse or change their brand identity after viewing posts with their logo altered.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nestle/24287259392?v=feed&story_fbid=107128462646736
The company warned that anyone doing that would have their comments deleted on the fan page.
This started with some posts by Greenpeace and has escalated from there. The chain reaction has gotten out of control, fueled by Nestle’s poor PR and social communications efforts. The reaction from fans was a string of strong defensive reactions at first to what are now decidedly offensive moves. Then came comments about freedom of speech, Big Brother, Nestle losing customers, and postings making fun of Nestle for not knowing how to have consumers interact with their brand.
So what were they thinking? The fact that fans altered their logo is not the point here. The point can be made that fans were interacting with the brand. They certainly could have handled this in a much different way.
As far as Nestle and lessons learned… obviously the agency that posted the phrase “to repeat” before the phrase “please don’t post using altered version of any of our logos as your profile pictures”… didn’t know how to communicate to their audience. It will be interesting to see how they clean up this mess. What were they thinking? Here's some good advice for managing expectations in social networks:
1. Understand your audience and know that they have loyalty to the brand as long as it fits their mindset about who the brand
2. Practice transparency with your communications; don't hide or disguise facts that will be uncovered
3. Practice common courtesy and professionalism as you would if you were speaking to someone in person
4. Know that when you post your word choice and the tone of the post can be taken differently that you intend
5. Have a clear plan of communications; be a part of the conversation, don't preach, promote or push your audience
If you want to more information on how to handle social community issues like this one, let me know. I will be happy to share with you.
Leah Woolford
Founder and CEO, USDM.net
lwoolford@usdm.net
361.548.5110