Shiny Green Button

Photo credit: Lel4nd on Flickr

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal contained an article about the chocolate giant Nestle’s recent troubles with activists. The issue: Nestle’s use of palm oil from a supplier accused of razing rainforests to get it.

Activists took advantage of social media outlets like Facebook and YouTube to raise awareness. Nestle responded by asking Google to remove the protesters’ videos, citing copyright violation, and threatened to delete comments from the company Facebook page. Bad idea. Nestle’s defensive actions only riled up the activists even more.

I couldn’t help but think of the situation in terms of personality types. If Nestle were a person, they would be a curmudgeonly introvert, demanding to be left alone, waving a fist and yelling at the crazy kids to stay off its property—or else.

What social media requires is an extrovert, someone who likes people, who wants to listen and engage. Someone who is interested in the conversation and the buzz that comes from pinging ideas back and forth.

Some marketing experts are advising Nestle to shut down its Facebook page altogether, according to the Wall Street Journal. But it seems like the worst possible time to shy away. Here’s an idea for you, Nestle: Hire the most outgoing, sociable person (or team) to manage your social media strategy. Give them the power to be transparent—let them blab about all the details of your progress so your customers can follow along as you take steps to address your palm oil problem. Let them get to know your critics, and treat them like friends with a bit of constructive criticism, rather than adversaries. The more open and honest Nestle can be, the better chance they have of turning their critics into champions.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 9:42 am and is filed under Brands, Communications, Media, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.