Not everything you read in the newspapers is true.
Having worked in the industry myself, I know for a fact that stories are sometimes “planted” to lobby for something, influence public opinion or favor a high-spending advertiser.
And now it seems Facebook has been caught with its pants down when it was identified as the one “feeding” anti-Google stories to the media. Worse, Facebook has admitted to the deed, citing Google’s infringement of Facebook data and privacy concerns in the social networking tool called Social Circle which Google is implementing. Observers have since then said that FB’s fears are largely “unfounded.”
The whole brouhaha came about when blogger Christopher Soghoian exposed a series of emails sent to him by Facebook’s blue chip PR Burson-Marsteller (through John Mercurio) on an op-ed opportunity entitled ” Google Quietly Launches Sweeping Violation of User Privacy.” Get an idea of their email exchange in this screenshot.
Note that Burson-Marsteller didn’t identify its client but a little sleuthing and it was soon found out that BM was working in behalf of Facebook.
Read more about this whole story in The Daily Beast
If I were Mark Zuckerberg, I’d sooner replace Burson-Marsteller for being careless and leaving digital footprints like that!
Even in the Philippines, it’s kinda appalling how big, supposedly techie, multinational companies rely on (mostly) traditional PR agencies with little digital know-how. Check them out ….
1. Do they still print out their press kit photos in 6 x 4 matte finish?
2. Do the pictures they enclose in flash drives a high-res 10MB or a web-friendly 600KB?
3. How’s their media/blogger list … is it composed of biggies or mostly underlings & unknowns?
4. Does your PR know basic digital terms like SEO, WP plugins and landing page?
5. How’s their website? Are people enthusiastic enough to like and comment on their company Facebook page?
Just saying! 😀
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