A chronology of a PR disaster for Nestle, driven by social media.

1.   A social media nightmare in Nestlé's Easter basket How a Social Media backlash impacted a global food giant.

2. What are we talking about? Many global marketing companies are “sitting on the sidelines” looking for opportunities to “commercialize” social media. What follows is a chronology: NOT of commercialization but of a public relations and market nightmare for a global company. If your company values its brands and consumer relationships and you don’t have a rapid social media recovery strategy, please learn from the following . . .

3. March 17, 2010 Greenpeace accuses Nestle of contributing to de-forestation as a result of its choice of palm-oil suppliers in Indonesia http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/

4. March 17, 2010 Orangutans are threatened by the deforestation . . . Not good news for the folks in marketing. 

5. March 17-28, 2010 68related YouTube videos attract 1.2 Million views. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nestle+palm+oil&search_type=&aq=f

6. March 17, 2010 Collateral Greenpeace videos are tagged with message about Nestle palm oil policy1.1 Million Views (as of 3/28/10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso

7. March 17-28, 2010 Nestlé's Facebook Page is overwhelmed with negative comments

8. March 17-28, 2010 Nestlé's Facebook Page is overwhelmed with more negative comments

9. March 19, 2010 Nestlé responds with a web site statement that says supplier was terminated

10. March 29, 2010 Social Media community remains skeptical

11. March 29, 2010 Negative Twitter comments re: “Nestle Palm Oil” appear every 15 minutes

12. March 29, 2010 The Wall Street Journal picks up the story . . .

13. So, let’s look at the scoreboard 1 week before the Easter holiday in the US 1.2 Million Negative YouTube Videos 95,000 Nestle Facebook fans seeing negative messages Negative Twitter Tsunami The Wall Street Journal is spreading the story 1 week before the Easter holiday in the US

14. So what do we learn? If you’re an iconic brand, don’t underestimate social media as a shaper of your brand. If you’re an iconic brand, establish a 360 best practices perspective TODAY. Have a rapid response plan in place to deal with social media. Don’t mess with Orangutans

15. Want to talk? We love this stuff. We like avoiding problems even more. MarketingCavalry.com Jim Kaczkowski Contact@marketingcavalry.com

16. We are “pro-orangutan”