Fishburn Hedges

28.07.2010

This week has seen the launch of ‘PR on Facebook’, a page set-up by the facebook communications team under the auspices of being a knowledge sharing forum for fellow professionals and interested third parties.  Launched less than a week ago, the group already has over 1,600 fans and demonstrably has the potential to become a real hub for the PR community.

It’s very early days for the page and at present almost all of the content is being driven by facebook’s own communications team.  Already some interesting articles have appeared, with (clearly promotional) thoughts from the facebook team to the role facebook can play in enhancing a PR campaign.

- Matt Hicks (in house at Facebook) gives an introduction to the components of a successful campaign launch on facebook.   It reads a bit like a 101 on digital PR, but I thought the nod to using targeted status updates was interesting. Recruiting 20 of your friends to display a campaign inspired status update does have a certain power to it and arguably has the potential to reach further than a twitter initiative.

- A piece on the value of live streams discussion facilitated by facebook.   The in-house comms team clearly see live streaming via facebook as a natural extension of their reach.  It has obvious appeal for clients already keen to promote webinars and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a boom in the near future. 

- A short story on how the iconic ‘like’ button is extending its reach beyond facebook.  Classic example of the speed at which a facebook innovation can come to be accepted as a norm and proof that the demand for user generated content and recommendations is greater than ever.

I sense the continuing appeal of ‘PR on Facebook’ will be determined by whether a range of PRs come to view the page as a forum for sharing ideas and best practice.  If so, expect it to become a must read for any PR dabbling in the digital world…

Posted by Andrew Lewin