Another great example of social media suicide

We all know Nestlé, the company responsible for Kit Kat, Nescafe, Nesquik, Nido and many many more products.

Recently Nestlé has been accused by Greenpeace of double-talk after it was revealed that the company uses non-renewable palm oil in its products. For your information Nestlé has always had all sort of critics and negative comments in the past because of its policies, so nothing really new about this.

What is surprising though is how Nestlé has been handling the problem and critics on Facebook; have a look at this:

This is the beauty, as well as the dark side of Facebook, where everyone can become a fan and comment, for better or for worse. What’s astonishing about Nestlé’s response is how they managed it; they actually made the problem much bigger and fuelled fire by insulting fans and threatening to delete comments.

So, who is right?

Nestlé, the “Page Dictator”, who is well within its legal rights to delete comments, to insult its customers and to continue to use non-renewable palm oil?

Or the “fans”, who altered Nestlé's logo and are very critical about Nestlé’s policies and products?

My conclusion is that some big corporations, Nestlé in this case, have absolutely no idea what to do when a crisis flares up on their Facebook page or any other social media platform. This isn't about legal rights. It's about strategy, which clearly Nestlé does not have.

Lastly, some important points to remember:

DO NOT EVER INSULT YOUR FANS

DO NOT DELETE POSTS

DO NOT RESPOND UNTIL YOU HAVE SOMETHING POSITIVE TO SAY AND THEN ENGAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS WITH DISCUSSIONS

DO DAMAGE CONTROL