March 2010 - AHA Creative Strategies

Words You Should Never Say To A Client

Phyllis Schaeffler Dealy has an excellent blog post on iMedia today. In it, she discusses the seven words you should never say to a client. It’s worth a read whether you are a client, the agency or a service provider.

One of the points that Phyllis touches on (and they are all solid, relevant points) is that you should be fearless, but not reckless. This is an important consideration for many organizations because the larger they are, the more risk adverse they can be. In this new world of communication, it is taking time for many on the senior team to realize that by not engaging and taking some calculated risk in that outreach, they are actually taking a much bigger risk. The conversations are happening and either your organization is a part of them and is participating, contributing and connecting or you are disengaged and giving others the opportunity to communicate for your brand.

There is an interesting piece in BusinessWeek that talks about how companies need to respond to their most vocal customers. It outlines some of the software now available to help organizations monitor the Web for those discussions.

One of the key points that this article makes is that organizations can no longer control the message. You cannot rein in the conversations that are happening. There are discussions happening online whether you like what is being said or not.

There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for candy maker Nestle. I just checked their Facebook page and the negative comments are still being posted on a regular basis. I also checked out their Twitter accounts (@nestle and @nestlecsv – which stands for creating shared value. While there are plenty of comments to and at Nestle on Twitter, they aren’t tweeting much.

Being attacked publicly is one of the main concerns that we hear when we speak with new clients about the potential of using social media as a part of their communications efforts. This is a valid concern and one that needs to be addressed, especially for those organizations that have outspoken critics—critics that understand and use social media and other PR tactics.

The challenge that Nestlé is facing is in the use of palm oil in their products.

You only have to read a few comments on its Facebook page to see that people are angry with Nestlé and while the challenge began with a video about Kit Kat put out by Greenpeace, it escalated into something that has now taken on a life of its own.