Now, it’s to be assumed that there would be those who would consider this comment rude and post retaliatory remarks on the page, but what really caused the outrage were the responses posted back by Nestlé.

Nestlé @Paul Griffin – that’s a new understanding of intellectual property rights. We’ll muse on that. You can have what you like as your profile picture. But if it’s an altered version of any of our logos, we’ll remove it [from] this page.

Nestlé Thanks for the lesson in manners. Consider  yourself embraced. But it’s our page, we set the  rules, it was ever thus.

Nestlé Oh please .. it’s like we’re censoring  everything to allow only positive comments.

Finally culminating in my personal favorite:

Nestlé This (deleting logos) was one in a series of mistakes for which I would like to apologise. And for being rude. We’ve stopped deleting posts, and I have stopped being rude.

Undoubtedly, most of the articles you’ve read have probably been negative towards Nestlé, scolding them for conducting bad PR and telling them that they’ve missed the point of social media. But I disagree.

I think most of the people wagging their fingers at Nestlé have forgotten what social media is all about. In the beginning, social media was a tool to connect and interact with your friends virtually, all the while, being yourself. Granted, the entrance of corporations and businesses into the social media space has changed a few rules, but they must remember why they chose to market on this platform in the first place. If it was merely to create a brand presence, then this isn’t relevant, but if it was to interact with their audience and create a dialogue that would make them relevant and current, then they’ve lost sight of their goal. As a consumer, I have no desire to be redirected to other sites, and if I wanted to read PR, I would find a press release. I seek out authentic discussion with the face of my brand as I’m sure most other consumers do or they may have not chosen Nestlé’s Facebook wall to launch a protest. With all that being said, I realize the importance of brand equity, and I do strongly agree that the person sitting behind your Facebook fan page should be the ideal representation of your company and brand. Maybe Nestlé didn’t chose that ideal person. Even if they did, social media is risky because people make mistakes, but if it will eliminate reading canned messages and mindless PR, I can be very forgiving.

The overall message was clear: Social media can be a powerful and necessary tool. Instead of writing about tedious details, I’m going to boil all my learnings down to eight important key take-aways.

1. Within social media, consumers become producers – Michael Mendenhall, CMO of HP

• HP used social media to host an online contest that challenged people to express themselves creatively through video for a chance to win $300,000 in prizes. By doing this, HP allowed their consumers to generate the content of the contest and also promoted their brand as being cool and connected to the online community.

2. Marketing strategies have to move from making impressions to making connections – Joshua Karpf, Senior Manager of Pepsico

• Pepsico launched The Juice Campaign to promote Tropicana juices to mommy bloggers via BlogHer. Instead of a generic print/media campaign, The Juice Campaign engaged key opinion leaders in social media within the mom community to make genuine connections with their consumers and executive one of their most well-received campaigns.

3. When executing social media campaigns, companies must accept “authenticity factor” i.e. Do not censor – Brian Kenny, CMO of Harvard Business School

• Although Harvard Business School would like to hold a certain brand image in people’s minds, they will not censor their material for fear of being viewed as unauthentic (even if it results in online photos of their students dressed as drag queens and getting arrested by police officers for fighting).

4. Embrace the technology shift, but always pay attention to your brand in the social media realm – Brian Kenny, CMO of Harvard Business School

• The brand image of Harvard is very important, and although they will keep up with the shifts of technology and social integration online, they strive to preserve that image across all platforms.

5. Few can sound like many – Michael DiLorenzo, Director of Social Media of NHL

• The NHL decided to hold a tweet-up for the Stanley Cup, which is the most important trophy in the NHL, and although there were only a handful of people in the nation that actually participated, the event was widely recognized and brought a lot of publicity for the NHL.

6. Give people a reason to be excited about your brand – Michael DiLorenzo, Director of Social Media of NHL

• Michael is a strong believer in keeping his customers happy by giving them free stuff. From free tickets to free cup-holders, your company’s gestures will reach its consumers.

7. If you are not authentic, people will scream and run the other way – Lynn Mann, Director of External Communications at Michelin NA

• In a playful anecdote involving her nieces and the fake Michelin Man, Lynn conveys the importance of authenticity when communicating with customers.

8. Stop. Look. Listen. And then Respond – Richard Pesce, Social Media and Digital Communications with Sprint Nextel

• A company shouldn’t just communicate to their consumers when it comes to crises. Customer service is extremely important, especially in the service providing industry, and using social media allows companies to respond in real time.

“Lavender”

“Black”

“White”

“Nude”

Look familiar? Well if you have a Facebook account and had signed into Facebook anytime last week, you’d recognize this peculiar trend. These status updates, which are mainly from girls, are the colors of the bras they were wearing at the time of the update. Scandalous. Why again? Because of breast cancer awareness.

Have you watched the bikini-clad girl taking a shower and singing the song of your choice through a showercam? Just choose the song you want her to sing and the bikini you want her to wear and watch her take a shower through a “guilt free” showercam experience. Obviously, this would lead you to go out and buy a breakfast burger at Burger King.

And did you hear about Skittles streaming a twitter feed right onto their home page for everyone to see? Well, even if you did, I’m sure you didn’t give it a second thought until right now.

Social media is a fantastic tool that has the power to spread news at phenomenal speeds and engage your audience ways that were impossible even 10 years ago. However, it’s important to remember that not all social media can help you meet your goals. Using viral methods can prove to be useless if it has no direct correlation to your brand message and especially if there is no call to action after the fact. Although it may generate buzz, it doesn’t motivate people to act or purchase, which is presumably the goal of the marketing campaign. The same applies to the Burger King showercam and Motrin Mom and countless other social media campaigns gone wrong. Not only did they stray from their marketing message (eat burgers, buy Motrin), they managed to offend and isolate large groups of people, most of whom were in their target audience.

With all that being said, there are those companies who hit the nail right on the head. Starbucks’ “My Starbucks Idea” gained rave reviews from their customers just a year after they were thought to be oversaturated and irrelevant. “My Starbucks Idea” encourages customers to co-create the next new Starbucks trend by allowing them to submit ideas on a website and then vote and discuss. The most popular ones get implemented. Not without its risks, but according to Adweek, Starbucks even surpassed Coca-Cola as the most popular brand on Facebook last year.

So what it really boils down to are the fundamentals of any marketing 101 course: know your audience, don’t offend people, align with your brand identity, and for god’s sake, be interesting! Because if you miss everything else, at least you’ll have your 15 seconds.