The ongoing saga surrounding Nestle, its purchasing of Palm Oil from companies allegedly connected to the destruction of rainforests and its publicly played-out spat with Greenpeace, seems to have drawn to a close (for the time being at least) with the announcement this week that the Swiss food giant has formed a partnership with The Forest Trust to help build responsible supply chains.

I’ve watched this whole episode play out from the sidelines, with my communication hat on, and sat aghast as wave after wave of negative commentary has filled the Nestle social media space, my jaw dropping further as the company’s handling of the issue in that same medium took on a distinct big brother approach.

Putting Nestle’s CSR and ‘green’ credentials to one side, this story for me contributes to my steadfast belief that online channels have to sit in the playground of public relations and comms professionals. The number of marketing and advertising people trying to control this space worries me as the concepts of public consultation or stakeholder engagement (a staple ingredient of any good comms practitioner) seem to be overlooked in favour of click-through rates, page impressions, number of Facebook fans and so on. When did the consistency and quality of the business message become a secondary objective in this medium?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a believer of integrated marketing communication but social media is not just a marketing tool. It’s a business tool that is driven by stakeholder communication. More so than any other media, stakeholders expect their voice to be heard online and handling those conversations (both the positive ones and the ‘you’re killing orangutangs’ ones) can be a challenge. If the person overseeing those online conversations has ever plied their trade in, or at least has a good working knowledge of, good ol’ fashioned stakeholder communication and issues management then you’re off to a good start at understanding how these conversations could unfold and impact your brand’s reputation.

The story goes that people are shunning traditional media in favour of online channels because they’re fed up of being bombarded with too many messages in their daily lives (widely recognised figures suggest every individual in America sees or hears between 1,000 and 3,000 brand messages a day). It’s obviously a worry for traditional marketeers and advertisers but I believe the fundamentals of online communication isn’t as complicated as some would have you believe. Forget about the smoke and mirrors, once the gloss and flash animation has worn off what are you left with?

Conversation is king and how you talk with (not to) your stakeholder will dictate how successful your online campaign will be. Just make sure that communication is in the hands of someone who wants to listen, not sell.