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.

Filed under: analysis, news, social media basics by Murray
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