3 Social Media Lessons To Be Learned From The Google vs. Facebook PR Fiasco

In case you haven’t been following the story, PR agency giant Burson-Marsteller admitted last week, amidst great gnashing of teeth and ludicrous scandal, that they were hired by Facebook to circulate anti-Google privacy stories. Facebook paid Burson to try and plant anti-Google stories in major media outlets, but the ham-handed employees at the center of the campaign refused to disclose their client--Facebook--to reporters, a clear violation of industry ethical standards. This is a pretty big black eye for the PR industry. It’s also a very teachable Social Media moment.

Google wants to play in the social network space, Facebook doesn’t want them to, and some PR agency thought it was a smart business decision to take money to get in the mud with the two of them. Burson thought this was a good idea? This agency, one of the most powerful PR agencies around, had just won the SABRE North American Agency of the Year award days before the story broke. Did they really think they were going to get by with this type of shenanigans? And these questions lead to the teachable moments:

Lesson #1 – Know Your Influencers in Social Media

Burson-Marsteller made several slip-ups but one that is worth noting is that they deleted a Facebook post from Jessica Murray. She is the Global Community Manager and social media goddess for the international professional group SocialMediaClub.org. Jessica knows her stuff, she comments on professional conduct in the social media industry, and she is connected to tens of thousands of professional level social media business people through her extended network. Jessica noticed the deletion and was not amused. She used her influence to spread the word about the mess. "That was wrong," a Burson representative told Wired. "We`ll be reaching out to Jessica, and we`ll let her put her post back," the representative said, adding that the company`s Facebook page has received "a lot of profanity."

Not all Twitter and Facebook freaks are alike. The agency kind of screwed with the wrong one with their behavior (and Jessica was likely not the only one the agency treated this way!), so know your influencers. You might not be able to shush out every little homegrown blogger that happens to go viral, but it’s wise to hedge your bets when the big guns show up to visit.

Lesson #2 – There is No Such Thing as a Secret Anymore
In the old day pre Web and social media communication was slow, towns were poorly connected (if connected ever at all), plenty of people couldn’t read or “do numbers” and much of the inner workings of business were kept on a need to know basis. It’s not those times anymore so wake up! There are very few industries that actually need secrecy, so it’s time to ditch a business model that requires it.

The only way Burson could have possibly thought their stunt would work is if no one found out. Have they heard of the Internet? HELLO! You think when it’s easy to google just about anything and anybody who’s nobody gets paid for dirt, just to feed the 24/7 global information beast, that news about a Google-Facebook tangle wouldn’t surface? Do you think those secrets will stay secret when you snub people like Jessica? The audacity is staggering. Relying on secrets is not reliable at all in the new Social Media World Order. Get rid of it where you can. Be social, be open, be actually transparent, and be real.

Lesson #3 – Grow a Pair and Learn to Say No
There’s always going to be mismatched agencies and clients. If you are a PR professional and someone asks you to do something, like black hat SEO or tricky trick accounting, don’t take the client. And if your marketing and advertising agency advices you to throw enough numbers at the wall and see what sticks, any publicity is good publicity, and hey, let’s spy on your competition, better think twice about working with them.

Legal guidelines and a sound social media policy is required to handle these situations. Taking the gig in the first place was a bad idea and then how Burson’s social media department handled the situation made things worse. Without either the courage or a policy, employees will wander as they will in the Social landscape and make decisions that aren’t in alignment with your mission. Don’t let them. Whether you’re in PR or Social, you should learn to say NO.

PR isn’t News – Get It!
PR people want what we do to seem like objective news, but it’s not. It might be news, but it’s not reporting and it often steps into advertising and spin. It’s especially not objective news when there is an agenda laying underneath the PR release that is nefarious or at best opaque. Every honest PR person knows this. Every Social Media professional knows this.
If the conduct of the PR industry gets sideways with the ethos of Social, someone will get hurt. Don’t let it be you. Learn from this fiasco and do better.

Picture courtesy of Creative Commons attibution license by qwrrty