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

10 Years Ago: “Yes We Have a Web Site”

Today: “Yes We Have a Facebook Page”

Ten years ago there were 350 million Internet users worldwide, today there are 350 million users on Facebook

…and there are more than 1.7 Billion Internet users worldwide. Ten years ago my company had already been in the digital business more than 7 years. Back then when I would ask some companies about their online or digital strategy they would remark “oh yes, we have a web site”. Obviously I would launch into a whole volume of reasons why that was not enough. I would talk about why an organization needs to leverage their web site and all other digital assets with online advertising, search marketing and customer relationship marketing. Well that was then and here we are today… sometimes when I ask the digital strategy question I get “Yes we have a Facebook page!” and they are very proud of the fact that they have one. Of course just like ten years ago, many organizations don’t do much with it or beyond that.

What if you could attract more than 20,000 “qualified” brand fans to your Facebook in 30 days? What if you could start a dialog with those brand fans of yours and start to listen to what they like and dislike about your brand, your service, your products, your everything? All this is very doable and actually is just the tip of the iceberg to a Facebook strategy as part of your overall digital strategy. Remember Facebook today has as many users as worldwide users on the Internet ten years ago, and the amazing fact is they doubled in one year!

As I attend Travelcom this week and talk to many amazing colleagues I am already excited about the innovations and the possibilities. Thanks USTA! If you are here catch my discussion on Thursday when we do a wrap of what we have heard this week and how we would take that information and make it actionable!

Till next time

Leah