http://theequitykicker.disqus.com/Nic Brisbourne’s view from London on venture capital and exploiting change in technology and mediaenWed, 05 Dec 2007 13:37:10 -0000http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/05/facebook-is-becoming-a-case-study-in-how-not-to-manage-pr/#comment-4455838<p>ironic that the anti-spam word that is showing up now is "MSFT"--given the topic is about privacy and arrogance.</p><p>however, this time microsoft looks like a trusted provider compared to the mistakes of facebook and lest we not forget Google.</p><p>Is the PR failure at Facebook a function of immaturity or is it something more endemic and therefore more problematic?</p>kerryWed, 05 Dec 2007 13:37:10 -0000http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/05/facebook-is-becoming-a-case-study-in-how-not-to-manage-pr/#comment-4455837<p>@ Nic....my view tallies with yours - this is sensitive stuff, far more so than user feeds when I can see who is throwing dead sheep at who. In fact, research shows we are often more willing to share our sex lives than our financial ones.</p><p>I think anyone who studies social nets "gets" that friendship groups run on trust, not utility. I think Facebook confused what they had - friendnets - with the sort of contact nets business people have, and assumed because the "Social Graph" looked the same, it worked the same - which has to make you wonder how well they "grok" the underlying dynamics of social nets (hmmm...I feel a post coming on).</p><p>When I wrote the stuff a month or so ago it was because I immediately grasped how the system *had* to work (blows own trumpet) and thus could see (especially in the light of the hubris of the "100 Year Revolution" announcement) the likely abuses that a company struggling to make a $15bn valuation could carry out.</p><p>Re PR...a fortnight ago I was at the NMK event on PR and made a rude comment (or 2) about Facebook's PR - I definitely felt as if I'd farted in church, and was later told by a number of people, in no uncertain terms, that Facebook's PR was the best in the business.</p><p>If that is so then their tactics of staying shtum are absolutely deliberate, and they have clearly calculated that the storm in a blogcup will blow over. Lets see if it works.....</p>alan pWed, 05 Dec 2007 03:45:38 -0000