We all know that Social Media can be an incredibly powerful tool for businesses and community groups to promote themselves. At the same time, the “truth” can become a very murky proposition, especially when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.
A good case in point is the recent escalation of the disagreement between Fortescue Metals – a major mining company Yindjibarndi people who control some of the land where Fortescue wants to mine. There is seriously big money at stake here, and the company seems to be trying to engage the community, but also possibly divide & conquer.
So, what did the land-holders do? They posted a video on YouTube giving their version of events at a community meeting. The very title – FMG Great Native Title Swindle – probably gives a reasonable view of the opinion of the people who posted the video. Clearly whoever posted the video was trying to make the company look bad… presumably either to kill the deal all together or strengthen their negotiating position.
Activist groups posting videos on YouTube is not really new. What is interesting here is the way the company responded. They came out swinging, creating their own video in response, called The True Yindjibarndi Story. They also claimed in the ABC and other media that the original video was biased and criticised the created.
The upshot of all of this seems to be that the company has created further division and, so far at least, decreased their level of positive engagement with the community.
With so much resting for the company on positive outcomes with the community, my question is simply this… could FMG have been smarter about their response? Could they have engaged in a way that built stronger relationships with the key people they need to work with?
There are clearly times when you do have to take a stand to correct bias or inaccuracy.
In this case, the company will probably get its way and will have to pay handsomely for it. The story just makes me think that the response could have been more nuanced and progressed things with better community outcomes.
How would you respond if you were advising FMG?
