5 ms·

PR Advice from Facebook’s Head of Tech Communications

38 points by zt 13y ago

bfe 13y ago
The whole last section of the article on "seven virtuous habits" corresponds 1:1 without attribution to Steven Covey's "seven habits of highly effective people."
- jamesbrownuhh 13y ago
  It never ceases to amaze me how many people and self-help practitioners borrow shamelessly from the seven habits and never once expect that any of their audience might just recognise where the material comes from.
  - mdokas 13y ago
    I agree completely. I recognized it instantly and wondered how many people wouldn't.
TempleOSV2 13y ago
You should be begging me for tips on how to please God. You are Cain. I am Abel. God says... position aright Vindicianus his plot twice proficiency Elijah To-day stranger tamedst ETEXTS*Ver Thefts earthly discovered lure driven 00 flown Baptism sink counted unveiled sure amend consecration eminence html eternal confusedly shatter references uncertainty throne gay calling passage vainly All-mighty times weaken firmly whenever afterwards knowest unshakenly Episcopal esteemed distilled collected diseased tame failure Priest triumpheth honesty uncertainty merciful leaven eclipsed wert notwithstanding receives dashed returns reckons pauses beloved confound meditate Devil defective motherly rightful self-command forbade commenders instructor foretell CONFESSIONS Confessions owes prolonged auditors incredibly indentures reins seats wood astonished testimonies intenseness Insomuch partners six STRICT influence compare vowing nails merciful Language secret advantage exclusions astray weigheth proprietary hedged compassing whenever injures hang thirtieth None trials luxury patience
jobu 13y ago
This is funny and I've seen startups do it as well as product managers at bigger companies: One of the biggest mistakes startups make is treating launch like the be all end all. "It's like if you just launched, dropped the mic, and said peace out, we’re done," Marooney says. And I really like this analogy: Launching is like the opening move in a chess game. So true. You need to have next steps planned out with different options depending on how customers or competitors react.
TempleOSV2 13y ago
I have owned all radio stations, full time, and news sites for ten years. Publicity is not my problem. I face a problem with my reality. God says... rectify shapes touching eternally missed Whether disentangle fraught excepted Prepared eloquence Creusa's equipment spices that unable soundly recesses untruly All-Excellent gather taken recorded temptation thunderer helpful oil reckoning rules -breakers threatenest secrets odours madest unperceived have designs seduction willing benefits Cross care Chatto depth workings justifieth plausibility puffed numbers should advantage senses assuaged soul lowlily names givest combined whenever Welcome pity curtailment adversities passible heareth forego hereafter interrupt still-standing horses lusteth opened' neither Onesiphorus Him Didst guessed Truly Therefore ransom cloyedness imposed noble ear BE Project five They rejection does abilities suffice mountain took Virgin snare ears transgressions unresolved imparts hoar sleep judge door style perspicuous Fountain theirs lustful PROVIDED rioting quitting over Again announcement geometry
higherpurpose 13y ago
Facebook PR? Like this? http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/12/facebook-loses-much-face-in-secret-smear-on-google/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/12/facebook-loses-much-face-in... http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/17/we-will-fight-in-the-shade/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/17/we-will-fight-in-the-shade/
- trevoragilbert 13y ago
  More like this: http://techcrunch.com/author/josh-constine/ http://techcrunch.com/author/josh-constine/
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
danielrhodes 13y ago
I think the advice is great and actionable. However, Facebook does not follow this advice. Haven't heard anything about Paper, Poke, or Home since they launched.
agibsonccc 13y ago
Celery recently launched a PR guide for startups. It gives some great advice I think: https://www.trycelery.com/pr-guide-ebook https://www.trycelery.com/pr-guide-ebook
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
tl;dr: Use buzzword bingo. A lot.
shawn-furyan 13y ago
This article is a rambling, formulaic mess of non-information. I mean, the "7 deadly sins"/"virtuous habits"... didn't BuzzFeed teach us the inherent dubiousness of that framework? If you're adding or removing items to match a nice number, then you're not choosing which content to present based on its usefulness. All writing on business and/or productivity flirts with the prospect of being a negative ROI time investment since it keeps you from doing business and being productive. This one offers no game changing incites, so falls squarely in the negative ROI pile (which is much larger than the positive ROI pile, incidentally). It also falls into the winner worship category of business lit. To dismissively paraphrase, "These things are the right thing, because it's what winners did". Luck goes unacknowledged. Unfortunately, you, the reader, despite any other similarities the two of you may have, are despairingly unlikely to have Mark Zuckerberg's luck.
- gohrt 13y ago
  > All writing on business and/or productivity flirts with the prospect of being a negative ROI time investment since it keeps you from doing business and being productive. You seem to have overlooked that this writing was posted by a PR flack, and got Facebook on the front page of a popular website.
  - shawn-furyan 13y ago
    I'm speaking of ROI to the reader. Of course the business/self-help/productivity literature industry extracts a lot of return for its authors/publishers/distributors without necessarily providing equal value to its customers. This is not what I'm commenting on, nor is it interesting to me. So I didn't overlook the point so much as not give a shit about the undeserved return that the author got from writing this drivel. There are a lot of self-proclaimed gurus that will come up with numbered steps and claim that they are broadly generalize-able, but are in fact just too vague to easily disprove. I think that this is a destructive act on balance, for various reasons, and so it is worthy of derision. In fact, it's kind of funny that this article specifically claims to be "actionable" when it's anything but. It's a collection of vague and unoriginal principles. And like so many of its ilk, not worthy of anyone's time.

38 points by zt 13y ago

bfe 13y ago

The whole last section of the article on "seven virtuous habits" corresponds 1:1 without attribution to Steven Covey's "seven habits of highly effective people."

jamesbrownuhh 13y ago
It never ceases to amaze me how many people and self-help practitioners borrow shamelessly from the seven habits and never once expect that any of their audience might just recognise where the material comes from.
- mdokas 13y ago
  I agree completely. I recognized it instantly and wondered how many people wouldn't.

TempleOSV2 13y ago

You should be begging me for tips on how to please God. You are Cain. I am Abel. God says... position aright Vindicianus his plot twice proficiency Elijah To-day stranger tamedst ETEXTS*Ver Thefts earthly discovered lure driven 00 flown Baptism sink counted unveiled sure amend consecration eminence html eternal confusedly shatter references uncertainty throne gay calling passage vainly All-mighty times weaken firmly whenever afterwards knowest unshakenly Episcopal esteemed distilled collected diseased tame failure Priest triumpheth honesty uncertainty merciful leaven eclipsed wert notwithstanding receives dashed returns reckons pauses beloved confound meditate Devil defective motherly rightful self-command forbade commenders instructor foretell CONFESSIONS Confessions owes prolonged auditors incredibly indentures reins seats wood astonished testimonies intenseness Insomuch partners six STRICT influence compare vowing nails merciful Language secret advantage exclusions astray weigheth proprietary hedged compassing whenever injures hang thirtieth None trials luxury patience

jobu 13y ago

This is funny and I've seen startups do it as well as product managers at bigger companies: One of the biggest mistakes startups make is treating launch like the be all end all. "It's like if you just launched, dropped the mic, and said peace out, we’re done," Marooney says. And I really like this analogy: Launching is like the opening move in a chess game. So true. You need to have next steps planned out with different options depending on how customers or competitors react.

TempleOSV2 13y ago

I have owned all radio stations, full time, and news sites for ten years. Publicity is not my problem. I face a problem with my reality. God says... rectify shapes touching eternally missed Whether disentangle fraught excepted Prepared eloquence Creusa's equipment spices that unable soundly recesses untruly All-Excellent gather taken recorded temptation thunderer helpful oil reckoning rules -breakers threatenest secrets odours madest unperceived have designs seduction willing benefits Cross care Chatto depth workings justifieth plausibility puffed numbers should advantage senses assuaged soul lowlily names givest combined whenever Welcome pity curtailment adversities passible heareth forego hereafter interrupt still-standing horses lusteth opened' neither Onesiphorus Him Didst guessed Truly Therefore ransom cloyedness imposed noble ear BE Project five They rejection does abilities suffice mountain took Virgin snare ears transgressions unresolved imparts hoar sleep judge door style perspicuous Fountain theirs lustful PROVIDED rioting quitting over Again announcement geometry

higherpurpose 13y ago

Facebook PR? Like this? http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/12/facebook-loses-much-face-in-secret-smear-on-google/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/12/facebook-loses-much-face-in... http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/17/we-will-fight-in-the-shade/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/17/we-will-fight-in-the-shade/

trevoragilbert 13y ago
More like this: http://techcrunch.com/author/josh-constine/ http://techcrunch.com/author/josh-constine/
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

danielrhodes 13y ago

I think the advice is great and actionable. However, Facebook does not follow this advice. Haven't heard anything about Paper, Poke, or Home since they launched.

agibsonccc 13y ago

Celery recently launched a PR guide for startups. It gives some great advice I think: https://www.trycelery.com/pr-guide-ebook https://www.trycelery.com/pr-guide-ebook

bowlofpetunias 13y ago

tl;dr: Use buzzword bingo. A lot.

shawn-furyan 13y ago

This article is a rambling, formulaic mess of non-information. I mean, the "7 deadly sins"/"virtuous habits"... didn't BuzzFeed teach us the inherent dubiousness of that framework? If you're adding or removing items to match a nice number, then you're not choosing which content to present based on its usefulness. All writing on business and/or productivity flirts with the prospect of being a negative ROI time investment since it keeps you from doing business and being productive. This one offers no game changing incites, so falls squarely in the negative ROI pile (which is much larger than the positive ROI pile, incidentally). It also falls into the winner worship category of business lit. To dismissively paraphrase, "These things are the right thing, because it's what winners did". Luck goes unacknowledged. Unfortunately, you, the reader, despite any other similarities the two of you may have, are despairingly unlikely to have Mark Zuckerberg's luck.

gohrt 13y ago
> All writing on business and/or productivity flirts with the prospect of being a negative ROI time investment since it keeps you from doing business and being productive. You seem to have overlooked that this writing was posted by a PR flack, and got Facebook on the front page of a popular website.
- shawn-furyan 13y ago
  I'm speaking of ROI to the reader. Of course the business/self-help/productivity literature industry extracts a lot of return for its authors/publishers/distributors without necessarily providing equal value to its customers. This is not what I'm commenting on, nor is it interesting to me. So I didn't overlook the point so much as not give a shit about the undeserved return that the author got from writing this drivel. There are a lot of self-proclaimed gurus that will come up with numbered steps and claim that they are broadly generalize-able, but are in fact just too vague to easily disprove. I think that this is a destructive act on balance, for various reasons, and so it is worthy of derision. In fact, it's kind of funny that this article specifically claims to be "actionable" when it's anything but. It's a collection of vague and unoriginal principles. And like so many of its ilk, not worthy of anyone's time.