Filed under: Enterprise 2.0
Mummy bloggers spit the dummy over nestles spoilt milk
The Sydney Morning Herald seem pretty switched on when it comes to ‘new media’ and tapping quickly into events rising from the blog-sphere. I picked up this story, 8 days after the fact, from their technology news stream.
Nestle have attracted scorn for about 40 years as one of the least ethical global companies. Recently they have attempted to utilise Web 2.0 and Blogger sphere identities to turn the tide on some of the negative consumer sentiment to their organisation. It appears to have not possibly gone any worse. Instead of successfully bribing some of america’s most followed parenting bloggers, their attempts to milk the Social-Media event have tapped a well of anger a little like the Sidoarjo Mud Flow. They reportedly vastly improved the awareness of the many Anti-Nestle Organisations.
It appears that in the twitter storm no-one won. The blogging identities that participated in the event were attacked and had their credibility damaged by accusations of being corporation sluts, and the Nestle itself were trashed in a runaway train of dissatisfaction.
So, what did went so terribly wrong. Nestle freely admitted that although they have an interest and believe in the power of social media and web2.0, they do not have expertise in the field nor have they really had much to do with it. They appeared to have wandered into this new and uncontrollable area, taking a large first step oblivious to what could happen. They had set-up a twitter channel #Nestlefamily, specifically for their invited bloggers to generate discussion and publicity, but they did not actively monitor or respond on this channel until the whole thing was totally derailed and out of control.
I applaud their attempt at openness and a hands off approach to the event, and for that I am sorry to see them and the bloggers involved burnt. But it is interesting that the organisation made such a large first web2.0 leap without first understanding what could have been lurking beneath the waters for them. Its a little like cliff diving into what turns out to be a shallow pond. By engaging and wooing some of the top US bloggers the reach of the event became massive, it was naive to believe that it would not attract the interest of the many Nestle-Boycott organisations and their followers.
Some Links
View of an Attendee: http://www.realmendriveminivans.com/dad-in-the-middle-of-a-twitstorm/
Pro-Nesltle Attendee: http://mommysnacks.net/2009/09/nestle-family-happy-healthy-gathering/
Some lessons learnt: http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2009/09/30/did-we-learn-anything-from-the-nestle-family-twitter-storm/
Boycotter perspective: http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/09/nestle-family-twitters.html
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