By Mary Beth West, APR
I’m counting my blessings this week that I’m not in the shoes of Nestle’s MarCom Department. With that said, however, I’m in the public relations business. And if you’re not an avid student of real-world case studies for guidance on how to handle your own next “really bad week” at the office, then you don’t belong in this profession. So I’m paying attention here, because this one’s a doozy.
As you can read from The Wall Street Journal piece, Nestle is getting swarmed on the social media front by Greenpeace and Greenpeace wannabes over the candy company’s selection of palm oil vendors (of which the greens are no fans, quite apparently – read for yourself the details).
With Nestle now counting 95,000 fans on its Facebook fan page – “now mostly protesters,” as the WSJ reports – the question has to be asked: With “friends” like these, who needs enemies?
Note to self: add to client crisis management plans without fail a Plan B, C and D for when activist groups hijack your client’s fan page.
The WSJ article closes by saying “Marketing experts are split as to whether the company should simply shut down its Facebook page,” citing a few sources on either side of the argument, with one saying that doing so would “cut off all lines of communication” (to which I disagree, since Facebook is a great tool, but come on – it’s not the alpha and the omega of all public contact as we know it); another source saying “The damage has been so done, it might not be a bad idea to shut down the page and start over” (to which I ask the obvious follow-up question – what’s going to keep activists from simply doing the same thing all over again on the new fan page or wherever else?).
So this is our world, and very few folks in even the highest levels of corporate marketing are used to it yet.
In this world, the corporation has limited control of messages pertaining to their own entities in the good times and, seemingly, very little to no control in the bad times. Social media platforms are a shared stage with the rest of the world, and everybody gets a backstage pass, regardless of whether they’re groupies or stalkers. But you know what? It ain’t going away.
To Nestle’s credit, I truly think they are fighting the good fight here, trying to use some restraint and navigate this highly public, ugly situation with some class. As their spokeswoman was quoted, the company wants to show “we are listening, which we obviously are, while not getting involved in a shouting match.” Amen to that. It’s a slippery slope between a level-headed, well-balanced response to criticism and suddenly realizing you’re in a place you don’t want to be – particularly when you’re operating from a supposition of corporate niceness and you’re dealing with a freewheeling, black-ops type of communications insurgency that delights in shock-value.
My final take-away from the temporary sanctuary of the sidelines is that these horror stories don’t give any of us a pass from deepening our engagement in social media – using the judgment of true professionals in how to take the high road, particularly in the face of fringe elements and tactical offensives. After all, if there’s a battle being fought out there – and there always is – you can’t win it if you don’t show up.
Tags: case studies, communications, crisis, crisis management, Facebook, Mary Beth West, Nestle, Public Relations, social media, Wall Street Journal
