Facebook Battleground

Greenpeace Senior Campaigner Rolf Skar and Web Social networking expert Jeremiah Owyang join Brian Lehrer to discuss Nestle's recent Facebook PR crisis:






Facebook Battleground: Nestle's Vs. Greenpeace from Brian Lehrer Live on Vimeo.

Notes and observations

Levelling the playing field

Rolf Skar says that in the past only large corporations were able to afford major advertising campaigns. Traditional media outlets are not necessarily interested in the issues that Greenpeace is trying to draw attention to. Now with social media and social networking tools, people can spread messages to their social networks quickly and easily, creating a buzz that can even make the traditional media sit up and take notice.

Integrated campaign

The first step was the release of the Caught Redhanded report exposes how Nestlé is sourcing palm oil from suppliers, including Sinar Mas, Indonesia's largest producer of palm oil, which continue to expand into the rainforest and carbon-rich peatlands, as well as into critical orangutan habitat. The second step was to engage the public. The release of a controversial short video which was designed to be shared easily, and a clear call to action (by sharing the video, sending an email directly to Nestle through a Greenpeace widget, sending protestors to comment on Nestle's fan page, sign a petition, etc) all contributed at a micro-level to engender a significant net effect.

Shame tactic in new media

Greenpeace has effectively brought Nestlé, the largest food and beverage company in the world,17 selling over a billion products every day, to its knees through the effective marshalling of new media. While individual's have made an impact in the past, this is the first coordinated and sophisticated attack used by an organisation such as Greenpeace. It does indicate that companies such as Nestle are vulnerable to this kind of attack in the future.

Real time is not fast enough

Social media is instantaneous and information can spread through networks like wildfire. Jeremiah points out that Nestle should have been better prepared and should have known that it was coming when the Caught Redhanded report was released. Secondly, Nestle's online moderators on Facebook did not appear to have much experience with dealing with online communities. Their comments were juvenile and poured further fuel on the fire. Finally, there were no community rules on their Facebook Fan Page so when they tried to make changes, delete comments, change policy, they did not have a leg to stand on.