I just picked up the latest issue of PRSA’s Tactics and I have to say that I’m growing tired of the way I see many people discussing this issue.

In the piece titled “Nestle debacle reveals ‘dark side’ of Facebook fan pages,” author Greg Beaubien writes:

“Nestle finds itself embroiled in the latest social media crisis. As CNET reported on March 22, the multinational food giant was recently pelted by a Facebook – and Twitter-based tweetstorm after operators of the Nestle’s Facebook page made hostile responses to critics…Facebook pages are still one of the hottest digital marketing tools out there, but the Nestle debacle demonstrates the downside of operating such a public forum for consumer comments.”

That is definitely a snippet of what was said. If you want the full story, you can get it here or here, but let me ask you this:

Since when does mixing angry consumers and questionably hostile responses **which DO NOT actually address the issue at hand ever lead to anything good?

In what medium would the responses made by those company representatives be acceptable? I’m drawing a blank…

Many are so quick to blame social media, but you can’t really this time around. This was a company issue that could pop up in any forum…like hmm…I don’t know…

• an interview
• a press conference
• a company event
• 36.5 million other channels

The fact is that this company issue popped up and was not then (and to my knowledge STILL has yet to be) properly addressed. Blame it on many things…just not Facebook or social media in general.