Social Media For Business: How Not to Use Facebook

"Watch Nestlé self-implode and abuse their fans on their own Facebook page,"
-@StyleIT, Comment from Twitter

This interesting article briefly describes some of the public relations problems Nestle has had to deal with lately. To make a long story short: Greenpeace created a graphic YouTube video which spoofed Nestle for sourcing Palm Oil from companies in Indonesia which engage in deforestation and the destruction of Orangutan habitats. The video went viral and discussion quickly spilled over to Nestle's Facebook page. Instead of communicating in an open and honest way with its public, Nestle did everything it could to stifle discussion, censor comments, alter feedback, and make some snide comments of its own.

The Nestle moderator has since deleted all of his/her comments, and most of the others that were mentioned in the article. It has also ceased commenting on its feeds... but the debate still rages on. Nestle just can't delete comments fast enough…

At this point, Nestle's Facebook page is doing the company more harm than good. The vast majority of comments are extremely negative - some even call for a boycott. Nestle's best option is to remove their Facebook page entirely. At the very least, they'd do well to change its 'visible to everyone' status for the time being.

How much of this could have been avoided if Nestle had attempted to communicate instead of dictate? It’s another example of an old-world marketing approach that fails in the new world reality.