I am not sure how many of you are familiar with the Nestle social media backlash – in fact I may have touched on this debate some months back. In any event to fill in those that are unfamiliar – Greenpeace was very upset with Nestle claiming their practices contributed to rainforest deforestation. They then used Youtube to post a very graphic video to shock viewers. It came across my path more than 8 weeks ago and I am sure for many of our readers it crossed your path as well.

There was also a big exchange on Facebook where people went when the video was removed – to post their discontent on the Nestle Fan page and altering the Nestle logo in a show of protest among other things. Nestle began by removing the posts and referring to a policy that said we will select any posts to be removed that do not use our logo in it’s correct format. Out cry began – because the whole point of social media and engagement is honesty and transparency. This is the place where businesses can listen and take in the criticism – with the chance to respond and build relationships. Not shut those voices down. The discontent then spread to Twitter and Nestle had to go back and apologize for removing those posts on Facebook and changed their policy.

What comes next is amazing as this is the POWER of SOCIAL MEDIA! Nestle then took the aggressive measures to alter its palm oil practices as this was the issue of contention.“Greenpeace U.K. touts, “With nearly 1.5 million views of our Kit Kat advert, over 200,000 emails sent, hundreds of phone calls and countless Facebook comments, you made it clear to Nestle that it had to address the problems with the palm oil and paper products it buys.”

The outcome for which Nestle has not only changed it practices – but has also joined forces with The Forest Trust. This is yet another example of the power that can be wielded by a community to force even the biggest of corporations to change their tune. The beauty is that if you establish an ongoing dialog now – that engages, shares, connects, creates and cutlivates – a give and take with  your customer you do not need to be the next business – being used as a case study for issues management! Mashable.com features this story written by Jennifer Van Grove and included  is the controversial and shocking video. I will attach here but PLEASE BE WARNED OF ITS SHOCKING CONTENT.

For those that still sit on the fence of social media and how to begin to leverage it’s tools for your business – this is a case study worth the due diligence!

Best Nicole

oday Nestle announced a “zero deforestation” policy in partnership with The Forest Trust (TFT), which will initially focus on amending its palm oil purchasing practices. The move follows a full blown Facebook attack initiated by Greenpeace earlier this year.

Eight weeks ago, Greenpeace UK released a provocative YouTube () video calling into question Nestle’s methods for acquiring palm oil. Greenpeace claims that the company’s practices contribute to rainforest deforestation and used YouTube as a platform to shock viewers with a video that likens eating a Kit Kat to eating an orangutan (the graphic video is embedded below).

The video caught the attention of Nestle, who had it removed from YouTube and consequently incited Greenpeace to rally the troops to call, send emails and leave chastising comments on Nestle’s Facebook Page. The situation created by the cacophony of updates worsened after a Nestle representative threatened to delete any comments by users whose profile pics included an altered version of the Nestle logo.

What followed is quite remarkable from a social media standpoint, and has much to do with Nestle’s more aggressive plan to alter its palm oil practices. Greenpeace U.K. touts, “With nearly 1.5 million views of our Kit Kat advert, over 200,000 emails sent, hundreds of phone calls and countless Facebook comments, you made it clear to Nestle that it had to address the problems with the palm oil and paper products it buys.”

Nestle is most certainly changing its tune, and its partnership with The Forest Trust means that Greenpeace can go after its next target, HSBC.

[img credit: Greenpeace U.K.]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Online Marketing. Tagged: Facebook, GREENPEACE, JENNIFER VAN GROVE, NESTLE, NICOLE MCKINNEY, PALM OIL, RAINFOREST DEFORESTATION, SHARE BLOG, THE FOREST TRUST, TWITTER, WWW.BCADGROUP.COM, WWW.MASHABLE.COM, YOUBUBE VIDEO, Youtube. 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.