Nestle: Don’t be Human, Even with Social Media. We will hate you for that

GapingVoid

Borrowing a phrase from Hugh Mcleod’s famous cartoons: If you talked to people the way [brands] talk to people, they’d punch you in the face.

Well, this week Nestle got punched in the face big time. They got cocky and that cost them dearly.

This type of backlash from customers is something that many companies have never experienced because before facebook there was no direct channel linking brands and customers.

And a major punch that was. Nestle politely asked that customers refrain themselves from posting Nestle logos that have been altered in their facebook wall or else, they would be deleted.

Nestle's non-sense

Nestle's Non-sense

Now, I am sure the big corporate guys writing this non-sense in Nestle’s facebook wall understand that at some level their fans are not just sheep that would follow everything the brand does on facebook. They can now react and when you threaten to delete a piece of information that does not belong to you then you are not only pissing them off, but you are creating a notion that your brand is old and evil and that you are trying to control the things that people feel about your brand. That is a major mistake.

However, brands are doomed in the social media space anyway. You are doomed if you engage and doomed if you don’t. All internet experts went nuts and said Nestle doesn’t get it. SALON says they do, sort of…

Don’t get me wrong — I think the whole concept of fan pages for corporations is stupid to begin with, and I think Nestle has done some truly vile things in the course of its existence on this planet. But I gotta say I’m kind of loving the nameless gal (or guy) who had the temerity to tell his (or her) critics “Consider yourself embraced.” That was real! That was awesome.

Social media is about being human and this person made a human mistake, disclosing too much and responding too fast to criticism in a public forum. This is a major mistake but the reaction and engagement itself is what all experts clamor for. Human interaction by brands. Well, you wanted it? You got it. Deal with it, not just by pointing fingers.

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