The only thing that spreads faster than good news on the web is bad news – as management at Nivea towers have discovered.

Nivea is just the latest in an increasingly long line of companies that have seen their reputations come under fire from empowered consumers using social media tools to give vent to their feelings.

And no wonder in this case. The company’s “Look like you give a damn” campaign was surely ill-advised to even hint that black people aren’t civilised.

The print ad which kicked off the debacle features a clean-shaven black man grasping the longer hair on a bearded mask of his own face, getting ready to throw it away. The phrase “Re-civilize yourself” is emblazoned over the image.

Unsurprisingly the company has taken a beating, and moved quickly to pull the advert. I can’t believe it made it live in the first place.

Regardless, what’s interesting here is the speed at which the whole thing has unfolded given that this started from something appearing in a monthly magazine.

Facebook user Monna Morton appears to have kicked it off on Wednesday evening at 2221 with a scathing post on Nivea’s Facebook page. See the image below.

And then Septembre Anderson Tweeted to Nivea spokewoman Rihanna about the advert, CNN became aware of the story and it was really on.

Of course, mainstream media still wields enormous power over the C-suite – rightly or wrongly – and it is that crossover from social to traditional media that nearly all companies fear when a reputation issue blows-up.

Nivea has issued an apology on its Facebook page, but it isn’t engaging or entering the fray in anyway at the time of writing. Perhaps they’ve seen the trouble that Nestle got itself into and has decided it’s already done enough damage.

At the time of writing there has been 993 Tweets about the episode, which according to mathematical wizardry courtesy of the good people of Sysomos means it has reached 3.1million Twitter users. The story hasn’t run its course yet, so that number is just going to keep increasingly… of course, that wouldn’t be a problem if it was a good news story.

This case raises questions about how companies can protect their reputations in the social media age? The answer isn’t anything to do with social media – the answer is to run the best business possible with maximum integrity at all times. Take customers seriously, strive to do things better every day and do something of value.

Nivea has suffered a common-sense breakdown, and it makes me wonder if the company is striving to do its best and act with integrity? But what about the agency that produced the ad? Surely someone in there must have had doubts about the direction of the campaign?

If we go back to the question about how can a company protect itself… Let’s assume the basics are covered, which means the firm needs to have a well thought out social media strategy with risk management and escalation procedures in place.

And even more importantly, while companies will spend a fortune on getting their message out very few spend enough on listening to the return message – they should.

Social media monitoring isn’t a nice to have in this day and age, it’s a necessity. It won’t stop a crisis like this, but when you see how quickly these things can unfold getting the heads-up about a problem even just a few minutes earlier is surely worth every penny.

Well the Wikipedia definition is comprehensive, but perhaps a little dry. And I’m not sure that it truly conveys what is at the heart of social media – people!

These new-fangled technologies are supremely cool in their own right, but they should not be the be all and end all. What they can do for us in terms of bringing people together and giving us all a voice is the be all and end all in my book.

There are two very different presentations below that attempt to answer the question – WTF is social media? – in very different ways.

The first is from Marta Kagan and she answers the question with all-American chutzpah. It’s actually an update on an earlier presentation she gave to reflect the way social media has grown and grown.

And then there’s this from Erik Qualman of Socialnomics. It’s a fast-moving, four-minute summary of all that’s good in social media with the sole intention of convincing you this is more than a passing fad.

Enjoy!

Social media is a relatively new term, but what it applies to isn’t. People have always used technology to connect and communicate, it just happens that now we have very cool and sophisticated technology to help us do that.

Before we had social media we had web2.0 – the title was supposed to indicate that the web had gotten all interactive and that the web is now all about two-way communication, as opposed to broadcast models.

But think about it… the web has always been social and interactive. The web grew out of email technology and networks that existed for scientists to talk to each other. And going back to 1998 when I first started working on the web, there was already a mind-boggling array of chat-rooms, forums and bulletin boards where I could chat to people to my heart’s content.

So why all the excitement about social media? It’s simply the fact that these tools are easier to use then ever, and that because more and more people are using them there is a growing rejection of traditional media. People are showing they want to talk to each other, rather be talked at.

Why not talk with us to see how we can help you on your social media journey?