Crisis management dsh

1Social media lessons - Greenpeace Vs Nestlé

Preview
1. Analysis: what happened?
2. What was the response from Nestle
3. Why is social media so important: some clarifying statistics
4. What can we do? Some recommendations.
a) In the short term.
b) In the long term.

Analysis: what happened?
Greenpeace accuses Nestlé of contributing to
deforestation as a result of its choice of palm-oil suppliers
in Indonesia.
The environmental awareness group Greenpeace
criticised Nestlé for obtaining palm oil from “companies
that are trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the
livelihoods of local people and pushing orangutans
towards extinction.

what happened?
• Greenpeace created a
provocative website and a
video (both there are still
there).
• The campaign featured a
disparaging version of the
logo for Nestle’s Kit Kat
candy bar with the word
“Killer” on it.
• The videos and the Killer logo
and others equally offensive
to the company started
circulating in cyberspace.
They went viral

what happened?
• 68 related videos in Youtube attracted 1.2 million hits.
• Hits Collateral Greenpeace videos are tagged with messages
about Nestlé palm oil policy: 1.1 million hits (up to 3/28/2010).
• Nestlé´s Facebook page is overwhelmed with negative
comments: fueled by the momentum of the Greenpeace video,
Anti-Nestle discussions move away from activist blogs
and land on Nestle‟s Facebook page.

What happened?
Nestle response responds with a web statement that says the
contract with the supplier has been terminate.
Nestle response on Facebook

What happened?
1. Social Media community remains skeptical
2. Negative Twitter comments related to Nestlé palm oil appear every
15 minutes.
3. Graph of 7 days of twitter usage of "nestle“
4. The Wall Street Journal picks up the story: the case jumps from the
social media to the official media

What happened?
1,2 million negative Youtube videos.
95.000 Nestlé Facebook fans seeing negative messages on its wall
Nestlé shares prices:

What happened?
•Negative Twitter tsunami.
•The Wall Street Journal is spreading the story.
13

What was the response from
Nestlé: some errors
1) Censor: the Streisland effect.
2) Get defensive.
3) Insult your customers.
4) Respond with the same weight.

•the “Streisland effect” Nestlé lobbied to have the video removed from
Youtube, citing a copyright complaint. Censoring the video in the first
place is what exacerbated this war. People started making the Killer logo
their profile picture, at which point Nestlé repeated the initial mistake by
issuing the following update on Facebook:

•The Streisland effect is used to describe the phenomenon when
censorship causes something to become even more
widespread. Don’t do it. And especially don’t do it twice. The net
is such a place that whatever you delete is pretty retrievable –
and even if it isn’t – the whole thing with mass protest is that it is
based on perception far more than reality. Censoring fuels this
emotion.
17
Social media lessons - Greenpeace Vs Nestlé

Nestle received 190 complaints within 24 hours on Facebook,
and thousands of tweets reaching hundreds of thousands of
consumers. The surest way to tick off users of social media is
to delete their comments. It is true that by the old standards of
20th century law, brands have a right to protect their intellectual
property. But social media comprises fluid networks of users
sharing and retweeting.

The biggest mistake Nestlé made was by the person running
the Facebook page who appeared to take every criticism
personally.
Retaliation also invokes the Streisland effect.
Nestlé should not have responded to anything. Nothing they
could say would make it right anyway, so it’s better to say
nothing.

Nestlé violated a basic rule of public Relations, "Don't insult your
customers". Even if you applaud the moderator for acting like a
living, breathing human being, the combative tone resulted in
continued rants on the Nestlé's Facebook page, even after the
company announced It was ending its relationship with the palm
oil supplier in question.
Such an announcement should have been a Lauded shift to a
sustainable practice, but it was lost amid the criticism.

A press release does not combat screaming hatred against a
brand. You must match fire with fire. The only way Nestlé can turn
this around is to carry out some thing that has the same weight as
the criticisms and viral nature that attacked it.
You can not respond with traditional methods. You must match
viral protest with viral solutions

Why is social media so important:
refreshing some ideas
•The conversation is going on whether you care
to be involved or not.
•If you choose not to be involved, you lose control
of the conversation about your product, your
business. You become irrelevant!
•Trust can take years to build but be eroded away
in just a few days.
•To avoid disaster, you have to keep one finger
on the pulse of the social web

Secure your brand
Monitor social media sites 24x7
Create rules of engagement
Establish your crisis strategy
Define your social media
response strategy
Make sure you understand the
ways social media work
Some recommendations:
In the long term

In the long term
• Grab your brand everywhere you can, regardless of whether or
not you plan to use it.
• Have control of your identity all over the web.
• Have a unified social media username to establish trust with
other members (and potential press contacts) who may belong
to multiple communities with you

In the long term
• We must monitor the social media 24X7 by using:
• Google alert.
• Social mention.
• WHOS TALKIN.
• ….

Train the employees on the proper use of social media
tools.
Define rules for employees engaging in social media
(social media policy). Basic social media guidelines like:
.
In the long term

Basic social media guidelines like:
1. Disclosing the company you work for.
2. Not discussing confidential information.
3. Refraining from disparaging the company.
4. Not engaging in impolite dialogue.
In the long term

•Set up a team who would be able to manage crisis situation and are
willing to work around the clock.
• Assess the situation online by harnessing the tools that are available.
•Track the sources of negative publicity constantly to monitor change.
• Follow the volume of responses and the type of consumer reaction
(neutral, positive, negative).
•Define your response and ensure consistency in communication – do
not send out multiple, mixed messages
In the long term

• If consumers are silent on the situation – continue to
monitor but don’t respond publically (Yet).
• If a response is demanded , wait for the initial hype and
outrage to die out, then respond to those who are
genuinely seeking an answer.
• Listen and determine the type of response the
consumers want – apology/ acknowledgement/ demand
for change.
• Do not respond too quickly.
• Do not respond in a “corporate tone” i.e.. a press
release on the website as the sole response mechanism.
In the long term

• There are lots of do‟s and don‟ts.
• Make sure the person you assign to handle social media tasks knows
how to properly interact with the public. Good manners and knowledge of
how to appropriately respond to comments of all kinds is imperative.
• Be prepared for negative feedback. No matter how wonderful you are,
someone somewhere can have a bone to pick. Realize it may wind up in
your social space. Engage with negative feedback like you do positive.
Don’t delete, edit or hide from negative comments (unless abusive)
• Be part of the conversation and don‟t try and „control‟ the space.
Listen to the crowd. They are probably your customer.
In the long term

Create a forum
Hire a team of professional
Community Managers
Start dialog, begin a process of
collaboration
Introduce yourself
Make a point to welcome the
comments
In the short term

Create an area for discussions
Ask your audience for advice
and suggestions
Build the community as a
community
Review process
In the short term

• Create a forum (other than
Facebook) that allows you to set
stronger privacy and moderation
setting.
• A niche Ning network, for example,
and a measured digital reachout
campaign might help cultivate a
core cohort of digital Nestle fans.
In the short term

• What happened to Nestle happened because the team
charged with managing its Facebook page was either not
qualified or not empowered to do their job. Properly handled, the
attack on Nestle’s facebook page could have been managed
differently and the outcome could have been radically more
positive for the brand.
• If Nestle‟s Social Media team had been experienced in crisis
management and properly trained, Greenpeace’s attack on the
Nestle Facebook page could have been made to fizzle out in
under an hour. In other words, Greenpeace’s attack could have
been made to backfire if it had been managed by professionals
instead of amateurs.
41
Social media lessons - Greenpeace Vs Nestlé

• Corporate comms isn‟t about creative copy and pushing it
out through a breadth of channels. It’s professional chess.
• This isn‟t amateur hour. Social Media management
requires rigorous training and razor-sharp focus: Having a
Social Media presence for your company and brand(s) is
serious business. It isn’t an afterthought. It isn’t something you
can afford to assign to interns. It isn’t something you can afford
to completely hire out to a digital shop, a “social media” firm or
an ad agency. You have to take the space seriously. This
requires planning, preparation, training and focus.

• If activist groups (even at the grass-roots level) set their
targets on you, you CANNOT afford to leave any of your
communications (digital or not) virtually unmanned. You
need Marines, Navy SEALS and Rangers on that wall, not
green, untested recruits. Hire professionals. The real time
web isn’t a joke. Take it seriously and you’ll probably be
okay. Hire amateurs, and suffer the consequences. It’s that
simple.
In the short term

• There comes a point when comms are just comms, and
the dialog has to move beyond well crafted words and
community appeasement. Listening and talking are just the
beginning.
1. Fact 1: Greenpeace has a valid argument when it comes
to environmental protection.
2. Fact 2: Nestle is a complex business with enormous
supply requirements, relatively inelastic price-points, and
tremendous pressure in the middle of a global economic
crisis to perform well for its shareholders.
In the short term
44Social media lessons -
Greenpeace Vs Nstle

• Instead of wasting so much energy fighting comms could
be used to open a dialog, find some common ground, and
begin a process of collaboration: Nestle knows food
production. Greenpeace knows environmentally sound
practices. It seems that they could both learn a lot from each
other.
• Start using their digital comms team to open the door to
constructive dialog on these issues. Moderating the
ensuing discussions – no matter how difficult the first few
hours and days may be – would be a solid next step.
45Social media lessons - Greenpeace Vs Nstle

• Don‟t just reply from behind a faceless corporate
identity and avatar. Be a human being. Talk like a
human being. Feel like a human being. Engage on a
personal level with commenters.
In the short term

• This is important. Be cordial, be kind, be
professional, and assume your role as the custodian of
facts. Not propaganda: facts. If someone claims
something about your company or products that is
inaccurate, politely respond to their comment with a link
to factual information that will help them reconsider their
position.
In the short term

• This will give discussion topics their own tab on the page,
and a place for people to go to start and participate in
discussions that isn’t necessarily the wall.
• Why is having a Discussions area important? Several
reasons:
1. First, it helps move a lot of the traffic and activity off the
wall, which isn’t a bad thing - for obvious reasons. (Not
all of it, but a good amount of it.).

This is one of the first tangible ways that you will
regain control of the situation: Manage the influx of
comments. Organize it. Redirect it. Refocus it. Give the
discussions purpose and focus.
2. Second, it helps keep all of the conversations
focused. Instead of a mess of anger and random
grievances, you can create a discussion thread for
each specific grievance. In the case of Nestle, these
individual discussion topics could be: Saving
Oranguntans. Preserving Borneo’s rain forests
In the short term

• Recruit your detractors‟ help in fixing the issues they are
angry about. Don’t just give your angry commenters lip
service. “Thanks for your comments. We will review your
suggestions and share them with management” doesn’t cut it
anymore. Instead, ask your audience for advice and
suggestions. Right there and then.
In the short term

Don’t wait. They want to express themselves? Great! Redirect their
energy: Shift them from anger to deliberate empowerment. They’re
angry at your company? There are specific things they want you to
stop doing? Perfect. Take the discussion a step further and ask
them to give you better alternatives to what you’re doing now. No,
really. Do it. Keep probing. Keep asking. Make them think about
practical solutions together.
In the short term

In the case of Nestle, this would mean inviting Greenpeace
and key environmental action think tanks to work with senior
Nestle supply chain execs on finding realistic alternatives to
current methods of production.
In the short term
52Social media lessons -
Greenpeace Vs Nstle

• Once the crisis is over, thank the commenters for their help
and invite them to continue what they started. Continue to
be a good host. Build the community as a community,
not as a fortified brand embassy.
In the short term

• Convince management to let you turn the feedback from
your new virtual think tank into something a little more
formal. Form a team to look into how to take those ideas
and make them happen. That kind of review process will
identify what ideas have merit, and what ideas don’t. It’s
a valuable exercise in that alone.
In the short term

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