The company has an agency in every country where it has a presence. On the bad side of the news spectrum, Facebook has been dealing with crisis after crisis after crisis after crisis. On the good side, the social network continues to debut new products and features.
As big as Facebook is—33,606 employees as of Sept. 30, according to its third-quarter-2018 financial results—it’s not making these announcements and dealing with the fallout from past bad decisions on its own. It takes a village.
Messages don’t happen in a vacuum. Companies have communications teams, both internal and external, to help shape and distribute those messages. Often, outside public relations agencies are used to pitch stories to the media, from product rollouts to personnel announcements to crisis management.
When the Cambridge Analytica scandal about the misuse of people’s personal data began dominating the news, the response that was “crafted” by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, likely with the help of media relations experts both inside Facebook and from agencies, was an apologetic tone and stressing the need to do a better job.
And it worked. Versions of that terminology made it onto news outlets including USA Today, CNN, CNBC, Financial Times, Fortune, Wired, Recode, The Verge, Mashable, Gizmodo, Engadget, The Washington Times and, yes, Adweek.
On a less controversial note, Zuckerberg’s revamping of Facebook’s mission statement last year to “bring people closer together” led to that phrase appearing on sites like CNN, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Fortune, Wired, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Verge and, yes, again, Adweek.
Many large companies will hire several PR shops for different tasks. Some do media relations, trying to curry favor with reporters. Some do “thought leadership,” getting their clients speaking engagements or bylines in publications. Others focus on helping brands navigate internal communications challenges.
David Cohen – Ad Week – December 27, 2018.
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