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Facebook’s PR Becomes More Aggressive

Posted by Nick O'Neill on February 14th, 2008 3:36 PM

Earlier this week buzz started spreading immediately that Facebook was making it extremely difficult for users to delete their accounts. Within 24 hours there was an immediate turnaround in their policy and Facebook made it possible for users to delete their account. It appears with more cash in hand, Facebook has expanded their PR force and are now tackling issues as they arise. Even minor statements in our blog have received attention from Facebook PR whereas previously there was no response.

It shows that Facebook is indeed growing up now that their rich uncle (Microsoft) has provided them with some cash to build the company with. Google has been well known for being extremely aggressive with their public relations enlisting the help of multiple agencies to ensure that all negative media is immediately cleaned up. Facebook has an even greater risk of privacy debacles and as such it is in their company’s best interest to invest heavily in public relations.

Over the next twelve months I would look for the increase in Facebook PR to continue as the company launches their online payment system and Beacon becomes a more significant advertising source for them. I’m glad to see Facebook taking proactive measures to prevent against future mishaps. It’s a sign of a maturing company.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 3:36 pm and is filed under PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 2 Comments

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    I feel this is not aggressive however it makes a good headline. Aggressive would suggest that any time someone dare mentions their name in a negative fashion that they go in guns blazing, cease and desist orders at the ready etc.

    However what is actually occurring is that they have woken up (well, employed more people) to handle / join in with the conversations that are taking place online and offline about their product.

    Aggressive? No
    Sound Business practice? Most definitely

    Even before the money came pouring in I have found that unlike many organisation I purchase products from the Facebook Customer Care Team respond quickly via email to questions that arise about the Product. I hope they keep this going as well as investing more money on the PR side. I have a view which is that Customer Service supports the Marketing / PR that takes place.

    Mike Ashworth
    Business Coaching and Consultancy
    Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK
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    Have to agree with Mike, this isn't 'aggressive' PR, it's 'responsive' PR. It is an attention grabbing adjective to stick into the title of you post but a little bit misleading perhaps? Of course they could playing heavy behind the scenes with you Nick but that isn't the subject here :-)

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