The “f” word is in big trouble. And it’s classic!
The once social media darling, Facebook, is now facing a crisis of unexpected proportions, complete with testimony before Congress: both the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees and the House Energy and Commerce Committee! All, seemingly, without a plan. A crisis plan.
Photo Courtesy of Sguru.org
Facing a weekend crash course in crisis communication skills coaching, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 33, traded his trademark gray T-shirt for a coat and tie. Described by The New York TIMES as a cerebral coder who is uncomfortable speaking in public, Mr. Zuckerberg’s goals are as follows. To answer lawmakers’ questions directly, not be overly defensive, to friendly-up and appear as humble, agreeable and as forthright as possible.
Facebook has also set up mock hearings involving its communications team and outside advisers who role-play members of Congress. Damage control efforts, overseen by a policy and communications team of more than 500 employees, as well as a handful of outside crisis communications firms, are unprecedented in the company’s 14-year history.
In addition to appeasing lawmakers and investors and re-establishing trust with its users, Mr. Zuckerberg needs to impress another important audience during next week’s hearings. Facebook’s rank-and-file employees have begun to question the company’s leadership and growth-at-all-costs philosophy as the latest crisis has spiraled.
Be Forthright and Friendly-Up
Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony will represent one of the biggest tests of his career, and a pivotal moment for the company’s future. Facebook’s data collection practices, the core of its ad-based business model, have come under broad scrutiny in recent weeks. As the company has been forced to admit that 8.7 million users have had their public profiles misused, the company’s stock has fallen about 15 percent.
The publicly-traded company and app is being boycotted with tweets of #DeleteFacebook. Even by fellow social media guru Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, whose company was bought out by Facebook. And Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has emerged as a prominent critic of Facebook’s approach to making money from user data, calling user privacy a “human right.”
The Facebook scandal seems to have unlocked even larger worries about the influence of social media, the power of Silicon Valley and the cavalier approach many tech companies have taken toward user privacy.
Don’t let your 15-minutes of fame find you flat-footed and fearful.