Facebook's Bad PR

Let's talk about some bad PR, for a change.

In the last few days some rumors about Facebook private messages being published on users' timelines were spread online. 

Users raised concerns to Facebook's staff about this phenomenon; however Facebook denied repeatedly.

They declared:

“A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline. Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users' profile pages” (Taken from here).

As a Facebook user, I can say with no doubt that that some of my private messages were published as posts at the beginning of my timeline. These were private messages from a year and a few months ago - I deleted them promptly, of course.

Why is this bad PR?

I think that denying everything was a great mistake. Not only because I am sure that the rumors were true, but also because it is never good to minimise an issue that several users reported. All the users who complained have a network of friendships on Facebook (and offline), so the news spread quickly. I saw various statuses changing into warning messages for other users to read. I couldn't really give an estimate, but I believe quite a lot of Facebook users know about the leak.This is demonstrated by the fact that some users cancelled their accounts and Facebook's share price fell 9.1 per cent. As I previously highlighted here on the blog, denial is never a good PR technique in the age of social media.

What do you think? Is this is an example of bad PR? Why?

Chick-Fil-A and a BIG PR Disaster

What is worse than getting your reputation ruined? Trying to restore it by creating a fake Facebook account, of course!

Chick-fil-A is an American fast food chain. A few weeks ago (July 2012) the company's reputation was affected by CEO Dan Cathy's anti-gay marriage allegations. Just a few days later, Chick-fil-A declared it withdrew kid's meal toys produced by the Jim Hendson Company, as these were defective. 

The outbreak started when a Facebook user publicly invited the company to avoid pretense of coincidence. At this point, a new user called Abby Farle advocated Chick-fil-A claiming to know for certain that the toy manufacturer had ended the contract much earlier than the CEO's anti-gay marriage stance became public.

(taken from here)

It was then discovered that Abby Farle became a Facebook user just hours before the discussion started and that images of a girl who looked exactly the same as her were available on Shutterstock. What a coincidence, huh?

The company denied its involvement in the Facebook discussion and invited its fans to spread this version of the story online. 55,000 people liked the post; however the mayors of Boston and Chicago have declared they wish to deny the chain licence to open new shops in their cities. 

MY COMMENT

How many coincidences! 

I think this is a typical example of a 'social media suicide'. Denial is an approach to crisis and issue management that I do not like, at all. I think that it is the worst response to a crisis in a highly connected world like the one we live in now. People talk, bloggers have a great influence, and common Facebook users can become revolutionists. Lying is not affordable anymore and companies should just accept it. Stakeholders prefer an organisation that admits its faults, apologises, and learn from its mistakes. I think denial is the worst move Chick-fil-A could have made. And the fake Facebook user is simply a no-no in PR! In this case, restoring the reputation would have been challenging because of the homophobic allegations alone. However, now the task will be even tougher, as it will be difficult to regain the trust of the publics and customers.