Intel was attacked this week by activists opposed to minerals mining in the Congo inundated Intel’s Facebook page.
They wanted Intel to pledge its support for a congressional bill that would restrict the import of “conflict minerals” that contribute to fighting in the war-torn country. Intel is among the biggest manufacturers in the electronics industry, which is highly reliant on a range of minerals.
In the beginning of the week, supporters of the bill dominated the discussion on Intel’s Facebook page, with dozens of critical comments – many of them identical. It was all part of a grassroots campaign using Facebook in a new way to get support for the bipartisan Conflict Minerals Trade Act that is making its way through Congress. The bill would regulate the global trade in conflict minerals that has fueled years of civil wars in which more than 5 million people have died in the Congo. These conflicts feature rape as a war weapon and some of the most horrific mass atrocities the world has ever seen.
Intel shut off discussion on its Facebook page and told its audience:
Closing comments set off howls of protest and Intel had to apologize:
It turns out that even a high tech company like Intel can fail to understand the power of social media in the hands of activists.
Other companies have been similarly attacked through social media:
Human rights group Amnesty International launched a social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and through bloggers, designed to raise money for a full page ad buy attacking oil company Shell in a UK national newspaper.
Thanks to 2,104 donors Amnesty International reached more than £30,000 and was capable to place adverts in Metro and Evening Standard, and on a van driving round the streets of London throughout the day of Shell’s annual general meeting (18 May 2010).
Amnesty’s full-page ad attacks the oil company for alleged environmental transgressions in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
That way Amnesty was able to confront shareholders with the reality of what they’ve invested in on their way to the annual general meeting, outside the event and on their way home too.
All politics aside the proposition is simple: Donate money, help Amnesty buy a nationwide newspaper ad, and stick it to man. The audience is presented with specific requirements and a clearly spelled out reward.
Nestlé, maker of Kit Kat, was using palm oil from companies that where trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction.
Greenpeace prepared a frontal assault with prepared assets such as off-brand logos, detrimental videos, and called for their Twitter followers to attack Nestle’s Facebook page.
Proof of the power of online communities: Today the Swiss company is working with TFT (The Forest Trust), a non-profit organization, to probe the firm’s palm oil suppliers:
“José Lopez, Executive Vice President Nestlé S.A, today announced in Malaysia Nestlé’s partnership with TFT (The Forest Trust), reaffirming Nestlé’s commitment to ending the deforestation of rainforests.
TFT, a global non-profit organization, will help Nestlé to build responsible supply chains by identifying and addressing embedded social and environmental issues. Nestlé is the first global consumer goods company to become a TFT member.
The partnership starts with palm oil, and Nestlé is studying its supply chains to determine a similarly ambitious target for the pulp and paper it uses. Together with TFT, Nestlé has defined the Responsible Sourcing Guidelines, a set of critical requirements to guide the Nestlé procurement process and to ensure compliance with the Nestlé Supplier Code.”
Greenpeace accredits its success to a widespread social media campaign that included a YouTube video with over 1.5 million views, Facebook comments on Nestlé’s fan page, tweets sent through a fake Wi-Fi network that sent shareholders straight to the campaign, and a comprehensive Web site.
There is no brand immune to a negative event … it happens, that’s life and most companies plan for this to happen by developing action plans and the like. However, it is possible to think BP forgot to let their PR team into this idea.
It was not too long ago we had the case of Dell catching all the negative press when the batteries in its laptops overheated and caught fire. And more recently, the Toyota brake issues … (When social media is used against you)
But in terms of bad online sentiment, it doesn’t get much worse than BP’s continuing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
A search for “BP oil spill” on YouTube returns over 900 videos about the disaster and last week BP was one of brands that was generating the most buzz on Twitter. BP seems to have a poor micro-blogging strategy and each twit is drowned by a deluge of hostile Tweets. This is partly just a question of quantity, which could be balanced if BP had a larger presence on these sites and more followers to begin with – but since it’s too late to do anything about that, the company might benefit by at least putting a more human (and humane) face on its social media communications.
Lets see the CEO make some personal twits – a symbolic gesture which might help temper the maelstrom of negative PR currently engulfing the company. Or even better – lets see the CEO apologize in a video broadcast. Like the video from KLM’s President and CEO Peter Hartman about the unprecedented ash crisis in Europe.
Without prompt action, we can expect the online communities to pick up hostilities and this will become an offline issue. T-Shirts are now being sold online to bolster the pressure on BP and reinforce the negative aspects of this disaster.
“We´re bringing oil to the American Shores” (“Wir bringen das Öl an die amerikanische Küste”)
Could that have been mitigated? It’s hard to say given the scope and scale of this incident. It certainly couldn’t have hurt to have fans, followers and plans to communicate.
Social media is a powerful crisis management tool, but only if you have been using it when you are not in crisis mode too:
Have a social media strategy that starts building community’s and discussions before events happen
Have a listening tool to understand the online discussions and general sentiment
Have a social media risk management plan
Educate the internal company on the use of social media and their role/responcibilities
Make social media a core aspect of your PR communications and wider community engagements
Maybe BP can learn from some of the airlines during the the Icelandic volcano eruption:
Intel was attacked this week by activists opposed to minerals mining in the Congo inundated Intel’s Facebook page.
