Nestlé’s social media mishap was one of many examples that helped prove German professor and psychologist Peter Kruse’s point.  In his presentation at this year’s re:publica conference in Berlin he illustrated how the Internet is facilitating a redistributing of power from the providers to the receivers.

By nature, the Internet is self-perpetuating and able to create it’s own buzz. The number of connections and networks formed are growing at an incredible speed and every good idea or sentiment can be met with instant resonance. A multitude of individuals are acting spontaneously, tweeting, blogging and sharing random information all the time. These are then re-tweeted, linked to and re-posted until absolutely everyone has seen the piano playing cat or the disapproving rabbit eating parsley. These are of course the less significant examples…

Nestlé’s, one of the world’s largest food manufacturers, and its anti-social behavior offers a more poignant story. On the 17^th of March 2009, Greenpeace posted a protest video on Youtube. Mimicking Nestlé’s KitKat advertisement, they outlined the plight of the Orangutan and its shrinking natural habitat. The aim of the video was to raise awareness and get people to ask Nestlé’s CEO to stop the corporation buying palm oil from destroyed rainforests. By the end of the day views had almost crept up to 200 000 when Nestlé panicked and ordered the video to be removed. As a consequence, queries came flooding into Nestlé’s official KitKat Facebook Fanpage, one of their largest online fan communities. Instead of responding to them, Nestlé foolishly deleted their own fan page the following day. Even not responding at all would have been a better reaction. Needless to say, this anti-social behavior did nothing to improve Nestlé’s reputation. Greenpeace’s video was re-uploaded and headlines such as “Nestlé doesn’t deserve a break”, “Nestlé’s attempts to censor Greenpeace backfire” and “Nestlé hit by ‘anti-social’ media surge” still hold the pole positions on Google searches.

Kruse believes that online networks are fundamentally changing the economy and society for the better, challenging old media and antiquated hierarchies. With a myriad of networks ready and waiting to be tapped into, individuals and organisations no longer have to fight for the attention of mass media in order to be heard. In this world of self-publication, it is the quality of content and intent that counts. Discussion with audiences and customers is the essential part of digital marketing and is becoming an ever more important aspect of running a business. As Peter Kruse concludes, “You can offer as much as you want, but if there’s no resonance then there’s no chance for your offer to succeed in the world of 2.0”.