Social media – PR Friend or Foe?

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Is social media a friend or foe? An interesting topic given the profile social media has claimed of late. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me present defence exhibit A – a Nestlé KitKat.

This icon of chocolate goodness seems harmless. Greenpeace, however, has pressured Nestlé to stop using palm oil in its products, citing deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and endangered species loss.

They placed a video on YouTube connecting dead Indonesian orang-utan fingers with Nestlé’s famous KitKats chocolate finger confectionary. Nestlé lobbied to have the video removed, citing copyright infringement. Naturally the video popped up all over the web. Greenpeace’s supporters also attacked Nestlé’s Facebook fan page. They used anti-Nestlé slogans instead of profile pictures – distorting the Nestlé “KitKat” logo into Nestlé “Killer”.

Nestlé threatened to delete comments from people who misused their brand. The company’s forum moderator insulted the company’s attackers. Nestlé was portrayed as a company that wanted to stifle criticism – not defend its trademarks.

Ultimately, they apologized for being rude, and stopped deleting posts. But the damage had been done. Nestlé didn’t seem to have a plan when its Facebook channel came under assault. On the upside, they have become a cautionary tale for the thousands of brands on Facebook.

Now if it will please the jury, may I present defence exhibit B – a jar of vegemite.

Vegemite is a pungent dark-brown yeast-extract that antipodeans spread on their toast.  To launch a new cheese flavoured spread, manufacturer Kraft created a public naming competition, subsequently putting the nameless product on shelves. Kraft received 48,000 entries and ultimately selected “iSnack 2.0” as the winner.

This name was met with almost universal condemnation. Thousands of comments flew across Twitter. 35 Facebook pages and 161 Facebook groups were created to condemn the iSnack 2.0 name. A website, “Names That Are Better Than iSnack 2.0”, sprang up. One commentator even suggested that person who had submitted the winning name be tarred with Vegemite and forced to run naked through Sydney “as retribution for his cultural crime.”

Within 72 hours, Kraft decided the i-Snack 2.0 name wasn’t worth defending. A subsequent poll chose Vegemite “CheesyBite” as the preferred name. However sales of iSnack 2.0 rose 47 percent during its controversial first two weeks, not affecting sales of original Vegemite. Marketing stunt or blunder? I guess the lines between genius and madness are blurred.

So, is social media friend or foe?  Does it even matter? In both cases, social channels were certainly used to attack brands. These channels don’t exist because marketers want them to. They exist because the mob wants them to. The real question, members of the jury, is what roles are you and your company playing in social media channels?