It’s just totally amazing to me how badly Facebook is handling the PR around its new Beacon system.
This story is NOT going away. Even if this particular story goes away, there’s a bad taste in our mouths because Facebook tried to do something that clearly wasn’t for the users. When David Weinberger, one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, says that you have a real PR problem.
Yet when I look at TechMeme I don’t see ONE SINGLE INTERVIEW that Mark Zuckerberg, or top executives at Facebook, have given ANYONE.
Hell, don’t like me or other bloggers? Then give a press conference with professional press.
ANYTHING would be better than the way that Facebook is handling this.
This is what happens when a startup gets a controlling PR belief system. Steve Jobs can pull that off. Not many companies can.
Facebook’s PR machinery is hiding its head in the sand and hoping this story goes away.
Hint: it’s not.
Do the press conference. Admit you screwed up. Take your shots. Look into the camera and say you’re sorry.
Crisis PR hint: don’t answer company bashing with text messages. Do it in video and with live events. Have the CEO do it.
Or don’t. It’s your reputation, not mine that’s at stake here.
Or, maybe, Zuckerberg is about to get fired from his CEO job? That’s the gesture that’s being communicated to the world by not appearing in person and doing a press conference.
It’s amazing to see how fast Zuckerberg’s stock is falling in the conversation networks I’m hanging out in.
