Reflection on Social Media Case 4: Nestle’s “Funner Menu Options”

It's always fun to see a company's interest in their individual consumers. It's the little things that make people feel like their voices are heard and acknowledged. For example, I follow the Netflix company account on Twitter and they often retweet other Twitter user's tweets or comment and like them. I don't know if these interactions would be viewed as strictly professional, but I think it's a good way to advertise their company. Other companies have caught on and had funny interactions with fellow Twitter users; here are is a list of examples (WARNING: Article does include some dirty words; it’s funny but still dirty).  Many of these funny tweets have gone viral by being retweeted and shared multiple times. The great and sometimes not so great thing about social media is that it can provide free advertising for companies. In two cases that we’ve studied, we understand how differently people will react to things that companies do. In the #McDstories case, we saw how something that was intended to be a good campaign, turned out to be something completely different. When Nestle decided to add funny items to their costumer service hotline, people responded positively on a message board like this one. From an objective perspective, it seems like Nestle did not add this menu items with the intent of gaining new customers but simply to add a little bit of fun to the caller’s day. McDonald’s started their #McDstories campaign with the intention of advertising to get more customers to visit their restaurants. I think Nestle got lucky when they added additional items to their menu. I also think this is partly due to the fact that they didn’t openly advertise that they were doing this and that someone with a lot of free time call the number and posted about it. I think it’s safe to say that in advertising, no matter what you do someone is going to hate it. If a company publishes the most neutral ad they can think of, you can bet that someone will speak up about what is wrong with it.