When most people think of social media they think of tools and technology.  However I think that all the tools have done is moved the emphasis not to where a message is stated but toward what an organization will say.

This is where organisations have problems, they simply do not have a voice in which to communicate.  And if they do have a voice they use it in the wrong way.  An example of this was with Nestle, who were accused of killing orangutans to get palm oil by GreenPeace.  They were attacked on the official Nestle page on Facebook and they simply didn’t have a voice in which to respond.  It took them two days to respond and in that time the conspicuous silence was as good as an admittance of guilt.

If they had had a voice they could have avoided what is being described as a PR disaster, whether it actually effects Kit-Kat sales is another matter.

I have discussed this issue on this video which can be accessed here