Nestle Meltdown on Facebook shows Sticky Side of Social Media

[Lunican]

Nestle Meltdown on Facebook shows Sticky Side of Social Media

Welcome to the biggest social media/PR disaster yet.  This one is a DOOZER.  Food giant Nestle, who is currently under pressure from environmentalists raging about deforestation and palm oil, because the subject of a swelling (and still growing) storm of user comments and attacks via Twitter and especially Facebook.  The cause?  Operators of the Facebook page took a hostile approach to consumers/critics.

This is the type of incident that destroys a company.  When 20 years ago it took several years to reach 50 million viewers, we’re hitting those numbers easily with the speed of the net and the way data travels.  Companies used to fear word of mouth because of the damage it could do when customers wouldn’t complain to the company but instead to their friends..and the story gets repeated, and you lose dozens of customers or more.  Nestle is now fighting it on a global scale as hundreds (likely even thousands or more) of users are pumping their fists in opposition to the food corporation for their supposed poor business practices, questionable ethics and alleged disregard for the environment.

One thing is apparent â€" by looking at the stock of Nestle during this explosion today, it’s obvious what can happen to a business if they mismanage their PR â€" especially in social media.

http://www.joergweishaupt.com/online-marketing/facebook-online-marketing/nestle-meltdown-on-facebook-shows-sticky-side-of-social-media.html

[reednavy]

As long as this doesn't affect my Nestle's Crunch, I'm alright.

[Cricket]

Unfortunately what may be mere speculation or even malicious rumor in the beginning can become the "truth" overnight by virtue of repetition on the Net. We see the same thing on the TV networks with or without the word "alleged".

[thekillingwax]

My thing is- does a company like Nestle really need social media? The reason I don't bother with facebook and twitter is because these companies just use it as another way to advertise. I don't pay attention to commercials about chocolate chip cookies on tv, why would I want to be their "friend" or fan online? I see all these companies stretching to get into social media as a bunch of old uninformed board members and CEOs trying to be relevant. Does chocolate need relevancy? Small companies that need to network and make a name for themselves, I can see it but there's just so much stupid stuff going on with social media now. Look at St. Vincent's twittering live surgeries now. Why? Let people watch it on a webcam if they're so interested? Somehow the vague procedure descriptions and weird personal observations seemed much more invasive than a simple video feed.