Facebook’s image as the world’s trusted über-connector is in crisis mode. Now, the platform used by millions is in reputational freefall.
According to a New York Times article, Facebook used a Washington-based consulting firm to “spread disparaging information about the social network’s critics and competitors…to discredit activist protesters that were against Facebook… to deflect criticism of the social network by pressing reporters to look into rivals like Google.” Why? To deflect its early knowledge of Russia’s manipulation of Facebook to manipulate American politics. And to maintain growth at all costs.
Fake news
Pushing out continuously positive information about your brand is an essential aspect of online reputation management. Publishing fake articles on fake “news” websites that are created for reputation management purposes, then amplifying them using armies of fake Twitter and Facebook users, were early online reputation management industry tactics. Some consultants still use them. But they have fallen out of favor in some circles because their fakeness is so easy to spot.
Where Facebook Failed
For crisis and reputation management campaigns to resonate, they need to be authentic: based on real actions, identities and facts. Without those traits, they may work over the short term but ultimately disintegrate and fade away. In today’s digital world, it is very hard to hide conceal the truth for long. It almost always comes out. That is why Facebook would have been better served to embrace transparency about this crisis at the onset, before it became public knowledge.
Instead, Facebook’s complicit approval of hardball disinformation tactics has contributed to its loss of credibility. Now Facebook faces a far deeper crisis than it might have otherwise: the potential loss of trust from its users, and the resulting blow back from its stakeholders.