Social Media - Boon or Bane?

Introduction: Social Media – Boon or Bane?

With the increase in the horizon of Social Media, various organisations and companies have seen how the online communication can improve or shatter their reputation. Crisis Management and PR practices are being tested and various new ways of handling online communications with stakeholders are being tested and created. Though traditional ways of communication and media practices tend to remain useful and more effective than the new ones in social media. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are the growing social media websites and they provide some growth of the relation between Stakeholder’s communicators and marketers who carefully need to use tactful ways of communication. This is necessary as any kind of difference could create a negative impact on the company’s reputation or Brand image. The best example could be Nestle’s case against Greenpeace.

Nestle, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier for food products, is always involved in numerous issues related to environmental issues, ingredients use in the products, economic issues and import and export. Greenpeace has attacked few of them with the hope to improve the company’s practices and turn them into a company, which is eco-friendly. One such accusation is the use of palm oil in Mars, which caused mass deforestation in Indonesia, and with the help of social media(Facebook and Youtube) this controversy was put online for the world to know. Nestle’s irresponsible act of sourcing palm oil from Indonesia led to a downfall in its Brand name. Later on, on demands of the Greenpeace and other activist groups Nestle had to change its sourcing which wouldn’t have been possible without the help and constant questioning on...

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...ly. ‘Actions are better than words’ is a famous saying but it will not hurt anyone in simply talking and admitting to one’s mistakes and taking full responsibility to the wrong-doings and mishaps, this would help in regaining the lost reputation.

The Nestle and Greenpeace catastrophe has showed the world how dangerous it could be in ignoring social media and using inexperienced staff to handle these critical situations. It taught every reputation and crisis management team to adapt the traditional ways of handling social media. It is not necessary to have a good social media presence but have a well-managed and well-planned social media presence, though the rules of engagement might be different. Lastly, it is very important to be tactful and careful in handling these types of issues as they may lead in negative marketing and loss of reputation or goodwill.