Desperate Measures by Facebook / Burson-Marsteller Raise All Kinds of Red Flags

One of the most exasperating phases new parents experience happens when their kids hit 3 or 4 years old and the parents get the dreaded call from the daycare or babysitter reporting that their precious child has bitten another. It happens when the little ones are angry or feel powerless, and they don’t have the tools or maturity to know how to respond. Eventually, children grow out of this stage pretty quickly. They begin to understand right from wrong and that they shouldn’t hurt someone else when they themselves are upset or are feeling threatened. Parents get to stop saying, “No biting” and “Play fair.”

Apparently, someone at Facebook and Burson-Marsteller never learned that lesson.

Here’s a rundown on recent events.

• Facebook hires Burson-Marsteller for a particular job and says not to reveal their name (Red flag #1).
• Burson-Marsteller launches a “whisper campaign” to get news stories and editorials about Google’s Social Circle feature in Gmail claiming privacy infractions (Facebook pot calling Google kettle…).
• Burson-Marsteller offers to ghost write stories for bloggers (Red flag #2).
• One FTC blogger asks who the client is, Burson-Marsteller replies: Nope, can’t tell (Red flag #3).
• Blogger publishes email exchange (na na na na boo boo).
• USA Today investigates the stealth claims about Social Circle and finds them false.
• The you-know-what hits the fan.
• Burson-Marsteller releases a statement blaming Facebook, admitting the actions were against Burson’s own policies and they should have “declined” the assignment. (Note the policy about not undertaking work “intended or designed to mislead”).
• Facebook releases a statement Burson-Marsteller, claiming “No 'smear' campaign was authorized or intended.” (It’s not me, it’s you.)
• Burson-Marsteller deletes negative comments from its own Facebook page (Seriously?).

A firestorm of stories and commentary has erupted online and in the mainstream media. Here are some highlights.

• USA Today: “Google deflects PR firm's attack of Gmail privacy”
• USA Today (asks “by what standard does this episode show any sign of adult supervision?”): “Update: Facebook says no 'smear' campaign intended”
• PRSA Chair, Rosanna Fiske: “Haven’t We Learned Anything About Disclosure?”
• Neville Hobson: “How Burson Marsteller can emerge from its Facebook PR fiasco”
• Dan York: "The Facebook/Burson-Marsteller Debacle, Google - and the World War For (Our) Information"
• PR Newser blog: “The Many Layers of the B-M/Facebook Smear Story”
• The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #599: May 16, 2011 – includes commentary on the Burson Marsteller / Facebook kerfuffle: the basics of the story, how the companies responded, ethical issues, what to do: the roles individual firms and the professional associations should play, our roles as communicators and opinion-formers in the social spaces. Discussion starts at about 6 minutes 26 seconds into the recording. You can download the MP3 file (29.5Mb).

Ironically, the same week Burson-Marsteller won the Holmes Report award for U.S. Agency of the Year. And it doesn’t even look like the two Burson-Marsteller employees involved in this mess will even get a time-out.

PRSA Silver Anvil is Now on Facebook

PRSA has created a Facebook page focusing on the Silver Anvil Awards. Here is the text of the announcement:

Visit the PRSA Silver Anvil Awards Evening event page on Facebook to keep up with latest news about the industry's most recognized and prestigious award program. The icon of best public relations practices, the Silver Anvil Awards will be presented on Thursday, June 5, 2008, at the Equitable Center in midtown Manhattan. The Silver Anvil Awards Evening has been named the “#1 Public Relations Industry Event in New York” by BizBash in its annual “New York’s Top 100 Events,” and will feature special guest celebrities along with pre-eminent public relations professionals who have risen to the top of their game in a highly competitive contest.

Use the Silver Anvil Awards Evening event page to invite others to learn more about the event and post your photos from the 2007 Silver Anvil Awards Evening. As we get closer to June 5, we'll post more updates, including podcast links, webcast dates, video clips and post-event photos.

I've got Social Media Block

Like a ton of other people who work in offices, I'm blocked from quite a few web sites, many of them social media-related, at work. I do public relations for a large hospital system and I understand security. I get it, we deal with a lot of sensitive information – almost none of which I have access to. I also understand when you have thousands of employees that there is potential for a lot of "lost" time if said employees are playing around on the Internet while at work.

My challenge with not having access is that I monitor media and do media relations for my system and I don't have access to the same information that the reporters do. I also have some employee relations duties and I don't have access to a lot of the sites that might tell me how our folk are feeling. If they post on Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube, I'm out of luck. I can't see what they might have said when I'm at the office. So I look when I'm home after my son's gone to sleep.

Since tracking employee feelings outside the workplace isn't my main function, it's not that big a deal to look while I'm at home. The real problem comes when a reporter asks for something related to a site that is blocked to me. Here's a recap of a recent conversation I had with a reporter:

Reporter: We've found some video on YouTube showing patients being transported by an ambulance service. Can you look at the video and tell me if it's a HIPAA violation?

Me: Um, I don't have access to YouTube and wouldn't comment on another organization; but, I'm happy to direct you to a good resource to help you understand HIPAA.

Reporter: You can't look at YouTube [I'm pretty sure I hear laughter in his voice]?

Me: No, it's a site that is blocked on our system.

Reporter: Wow. So anybody can say anything about your hospital and you won't even know it?

Me: Well, anyone can say anything about our hospital because it's their right to do that. But, no, if I wanted to check from work, I wouldn't know.

Reporter: Hey, if I ever come across anything, I'll let you know!

Me: Gosh. Thanks.

I follow a group of people on Twitter who are so incredibly smart, well informed, and sharing that I'm constantly learning from them via their Tweets. When I first came to this health system, I noticed that Twitter was one of the blocked sites. When I asked our IT guy to see if I could have it added to my "safe" list, he got back to me with this funny answer, "Sherry, Twitter is listed as a 'match making' site, so we can't okay it. I thought you were dating someone?"

Great. So not only was I blocked, the IT guy thinks I'm trying to hook up while at the office. So, now I post to Twitter through text on my personal phone and I read using my company BlackBerry (but can't post through BB because its Java function has been disabled). It's worth it to me to have access to the group I'm following – I learn something almost every day – but it's so convoluted!

If you want another take on the "Blocking" visit Shel Holtz's campaign against corporate blocking. For me, being blocked from sites is a pain but not really a huge hindrance to my work. For a lot of people though, it can be a real strain. Shel's got a great source of information about it on Stop Blocking!

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on blocking. Has blocking been a strain on your professional time? At what point can employees be trusted to not abuse the system by hours of shopping online or chatting with friends?

What do you think?

ABCs of Facebook

Learning About Social Media from Your Desk

While Facebook was originally designed as a tool for college students to network online, today, more than half of its 35 million active users are not college students, as reported in the August 20 issue of Newsweek, “Facebook Grows Up.” The growing population of Facebook users are above college age, and many are professionals.

Two things occurred in the last year to stimulate its dramatic growth. First, registration was opened to everyone. It no longer requires that you be invited by a current user. Second, developers started filling Facebook with tons of applications that people can use within Facebook. Many of those applications are rather silly, but some are quite practical.

So how can you use Facebook in a communications function? Interestingly, in many companies, employees are using Facebook to connect with each others in ways that they need but their Intranets won’t facilitate. In fact a few companies didn’t know this was going on until their IT departments banned use of Facebook at work and were met with huge outcrys from employees who were using Facebook to get their jobs done better.

Several of the podcasts I listen to have created fan groups in Facebook. I find it an interesting idea, though I think each is still toying with ways to make their groups more useful to everyone involved.

For more on this subject (and as your homework), listen to the New Comm Road episode #033 “Building Facebook Communities” by Bryan Person.

Social Networks: Lesson 5 in Learning About Social Media from Your Desk

So far in this learning about social media series we have covered RSS, blogs, podcasts and Delicious. I was going to talk about something else this month, but social networking has seen a surge of interest of late.

First, what is a social network? In this context, it’s a way of networking online. When you go to a PRSA meeting, you catch up with people you know and you meet new people. The same thing happens online. In social networks, people tend to find others with similar interests.

According to Wikipedia, the first social networking website was Classmates.com, which began in 1995. Many others have sprung up since then. Some are focused to a particular demographic or industry. Others, like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are more broad.

When you join a social network – typically for free – you will be able to set up your own profile page and start looking for “friends” who are also in that network.

LinkedIn’s profile pages are designed mostly for resume-type information. It’s designed for professionals to find each other.

Facebook has garnered much attention lately because it has opened up its infrastructure to allow for users to bring in non-Facebook applications, like to-do lists, Twitter posts, maps and movie ratings. (Though I did find it a little creepy that the sign up page asks if you are interested in men or women and if you are looking for a relationship, dating or random play. Hopefully, that will change as more and more professionals are using Facebook.)

Homework: Your first assignment this month his to ask three to five people you know if they are using a social networking site. Find out what they like and don’t like. Share it in the comments to this post. If you are using one, share what you like and don’t like.