Watch the Greenpeace video as well as interviews with both Greenpeace and Nestle representatives on TheVine TV now.

Nestle is set to enter the marketing textbooks on how not handle public relations in a digital age after its handling of a Greenpeace video highlighting the company's alleged use of palm oil from deforested areas in Indonesia.

Greenpeace's graphic YouTube video of an office worker inadvertently biting into an orang-utan finger instead of a Kit Kat chocolate bar has been viewed 750,000 times in a week.

Nestle's heavy handed tactics to blunt the campaign have landed it in the centre of a firestorm on Twitter and Facebook.

The video was posted part of a Greenpeace's campaign to highlight Nestle's continued use of palm oil sourced from Sinar Mas, an Indonesian company accused of illegal deforestation and peatland clearance.

Nestle petitioned YouTube to remove the video citing copyright infringement - Greenpeace had doctored the Kit Kat logo to read as Killer.

When Nestle's company Facebook page was flooded with negative posts from 'unfans' the company moved to delete them and any altered logos that appeared on the social networking site.

"To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic - they will be deleted," Nestle's moderator wrote.

The company is now facing a boycott of its products in the lead-up to Easter and has been forced into an about turn.

A day after the video was posted Nestle cancelled its contract to take palm oil directly from Sinar Mas, but to Greenpeace's disappointment it will continue receive palm oil from the firm through its supplier Cargill.

Belinda Fletcher a Greenpeace campaigner said Nestle's own goals of censorship had helped fan the flames of the campaign not douse them. "We have been so amazed by how this has taken on a life of its own. It's clear it is an issue that people really care about," she said.

The online and risk and reputation analysts SR7 says the number of Australians on social media sites ran into the thousands and more than 4,000 people had signed up to Nestle's Facebook site since last Friday. However almost all were saying negative things, said SR7 director James Griffin.

"That means the 92,000 fans who were there before are now reading very negative things about the company," said Mr Griffin. "It will be a real issue for Nestle if people start boycotting their products as some are now promising to do."

Scott Rhodie a director of digital public relations agency House Party said it was clear that Nestle did not have a "crisis communications plan" in place and that it ignored the rules of social media. "If you are in that space you have to respect it. The moment you start pulling down comments you lose that respect." He said the lack of a considered response plan was typical of large corporations; Nestle is the world's largest food manufacturer. "Sometimes those messages don't go down from the top to the bottom or rise from the top to the bottom."

It appears that Nestle is learning. A spokeswoman from Switzerland head office - the Australian office referred all calls to there - said: "Once it became evident that the Facebook page had been overwhelmed by protesters, we decided that our best course of action was to step back, listen and take note."




Watch the Greenpeace video as well as interviews with both Greenpeace and Nestle representatives on TheVine TV now.

By JULIAN LEE