Facebook PR Plan

Colin Haas

Week 9 Assignment

3/15/2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………..3-4 Background

The External Environment……………………………………………………………5-6 The Industry……………………………………………………………………………...7 The Client……………………………………………………………………………...7-8 The Product, Service or Issue……………………………………………………….8-9 Promotions……………………………………………………………………………..10 Market Share…………………………………………………………………………...11 Competition………………………………………………………………………...11-13 Resources………………………………………………………………………………13 SWOT Analysis…………………………………………………………………………14 Public Profiles………………………………………………………………………….15

Situational Analysis………………………………………………………………………..21-22 Core Problem Statement……………………………………………………………………..22 Facebook PR Campaign Goal………………………………………………………………..22 Facebook PR Campaign Objectives………………………………………………………...23 Key Publics

Millennials………………………………………………………………………………13 Marketers/ Brands/ Advertisers……………………………………………………...13 Investors………………………………………………………………………………..13 Privacy Advocates & Groups…………………………………………………………13

Strategies & Tactics Millennials…………………………………………………………………………..33-34 Marketers/ Brands/ Advertisers………………………………………………….34-35 Investors….............................................................................................…….35-36 Privacy Advocates & Groups……………………………………………………..36-37

Matrix Evaluation Millennials…………………………………………………………………………..…..38 Marketers/ Brands/ Advertisers……………………………………………………...38 Investors….............................................................................................………...39 Privacy Advocates & Groups……………………………………………………..39-40

Budget & Calendar (See Attachements) Millennials…………………………………………………………………………..…..41 Marketers/ Brands/ Advertisers……………………………………………………...41 Investors….............................................................................................………...42 Privacy Advocates & Groups…………………………………………………………42

References………………………………………………………………………………….43-49

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Executive Summary It’s quite amazing to look that the social media landscape in 2015 and see how far we have come and just how much it has revolutionized how we communicate and do business. Looking back at what social media has done for business and how it has taken a small business and turned into now being able to reach anyone, anywhere. A lot of what has happened can directly be attributed to Mark Zuckerberg and the team at Facebook. While Facebook is beginning to see more and more competition pop up, it still has the ability to remain on top for many years to come. In looking over Facebook’s strengths and weaknesses, we have identified what we feel the core problem is. It can be summed up that, due to Facebook’s privacy issues, millennial Facebook users are losing trust, and could result in lost advertising dollars from brands and marketers. As a result, we have identified the main campaign goal as aiming to improve millennial Facebook users’ trust and opinions of Facebook within the next twelve months. A continual loss in millennial engagement is not only affecting the millennial group, but three other key publics we have identified in making this campaign successful: marketers/ brand advertisers, privacy groups & advocates, and the investors. It is these four groups that can keep Facebook’s lifecycle rolling right along and aid with continuing to raise analyst’s expectations. A key measurement when you have competition from the big networks like – Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. Our team is committed to seeing this PR campaign not only help bring back millennials more, but also see increase stock purchase by investors, new video talent signing on with using Facebook to grow their own brand, but get the marketing community talking. We want to help you make this year be all about Facebook and at a low campaign cost to you. We like to think of our campaigns like a lean startup and make sure every dollar is making an impact on your overall brand and not misallocated. Our overall campaign budget will come in under the $200K mark (Please Appendix A) and we are quite sure there isn’t another agency that can pull off this type of campaign at such a great price. To accomplish this, we will rely heavily on influencers in each of the four key publics and those who cannot only help raise awareness, but the reach of the campaign too. We would like to highlight some of the key milestones for this campaign, starting with the investors group. While our overall goal is to see a 5% increase in the investors buying FB stock, one step to getting there is landing key media interviews on two of the most popular and influential business investors show within traditional media (radio + TV). Looking at our millennial group, we want to bring on some of the YouTube talent as way of bolstering and growing what Facebook wants to do in video. Just like the millennial group, we plan to do the same with the getting the marketing thought-leaders and partnering with them to help keep ad revenue coming in and growing. Last, a goal for our privacy group will come in the form of endorsements of the “how-

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to” videos and leveraging their voice to further get the message out about Facebook helping their users take care of their privacy anytime and from any device. Until today, Facebook has been shared content with only key groups that your PR team trusts. Today’s social economy is all about trust and collaboration, something Facebook needs to do, if it will continue remaining relevant.

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Facebook, Inc. is a social networking service and website. It aims to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around then, and share and express what matters to them to the people they care about (CNN Money, n.d.). What started back in October 2003, in Harvard dorm room, is now the largest social network on the planet. Becoming the largest social network has also brought Facebook its share of problems. In an effort to develop a strategic PR plan for Facebook, in the following sections, we have provided a comprehensive checklist of the external and internal environment that effect Facebook’s business strategy.

BACKGROUND

The External Environment

Facebook is operating in an interesting financial climate, as the economy is making continual gains. The GNP increased 5.3% in the third quarter of 2014, compared with an increase of 4.6% in the second. The GDP increased 6.4%, or $271.6 billion, in the third quarter to a level of $17,599.8 billion (BEA, n.d.).

(Source: Statista, 2015)

For 2015, the US economy is predicted that it will actually contribute more to global GDP growth than China’s. This would be the first time that has happened in nine years. Nuveen Asset Management is also predicting that they think it’s possible that US real growth will surpass that of the emerging-market economies for the first time since 1999 (Ro, 2015).

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Source: Business Insider

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) also reports that the unemployment rate has continued to drop since July 2014, currently reported at 5.6% for December 2014. At the same time as we are seeing gains in the economic outlook of the country, the political landscape is a different story. U.S. Congress continues to fight on every issue and President Obama’s rating continues to slip, compared to his first term. A national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted among 1,504 adults, finds that the words good and incompetent are used the most frequently to describe Obama (2015). Since 2004, there have been various groups and consumers that have announced their dislike for Facebook. There have been numerous complaints over Facebook privacy settings, but lately Facebook has been in the clear. Where Facebook has been seen as a positive is with its benefits for job hunting. Candidates can follow the companies they would like to work at by “liking” their company page and getting their updates. Another tactic is back to the privacy and making sure work and education info is set to public (Desta, 2014). While many use Facebook as a way to connect with their family and friends, it can also be a powerful way to launching your next career path. People aren’t just using Facebook, but Twitter is another powerful tool for job searching arsenal. Using Twitter for keyword searches and hashtags, like #jobs and #hiring, is helping possible candidates find new jobs in their field. In an effort to establish new connections, tweeting often helps them to network with like-minded folks in their profession (Desta, 2014). Where candidates probably get their biggest bang for their buck is with LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows their users to create a profile based off of their resume and qualifications. Users can connect with past, present, and future business connections, as well as potential future employers. LinkedIn is an excellent professional social network that features a job board that can be segmented on job-type and location. Candidates can ask for endorsements and recommendations from peers that vouch for those skills.

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The Industry

The social media landscape continues to grow and evolve, as more networks pop up each year. Some of Facebook’s competitors include Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest, and even Vine (owned by Twitter). The industry is also starting to fill up with the ever so popular, peer-to-peer networks apps like Kik, Voxer, CyberDust, WhatsApp, and the already mentioned, Snapchat. One of the biggest challenges that all of these social networks face, is their privacy settings. SnapChat was in hot water with its users over snaps (pictures) being saved via a third-party app. Luckily, Snapchat PR quickly addressed the issue and disabled all third-party apps. On the revenue side of the networks, LinkedIn’s revenue grew 45% to $568 million from $393 million a year earlier. Each of the three businesses – services for corporate recruiters, premium subscriptions and advertising – grew by more than 40% (Albergotti, 2014). LinkedIn membership ranks also grew fasters than some analysts had expected, rising to 332 million as of Sept. 30 from 313 million on the second quarter of 2014 (Albergotti, 2014). On the other hand, the tech giant, Google doesn’t monetize Google+ and many marketers would love to Google put forth more effort in truly making this a Facebook competitor. Where Google does make money on social, outside of their ad revenue, comes from their video goliath, YouTube. Digital video was paramount for marketers and brands in 2014, and this will continue to be the case moving forward. YouTube currently owns a fifth of the U.S. digital video ad market, raking in over $1.1 billion in video ad revenues in 2014, according to eMarketer (Blattberg, 2014). To better compete with platforms featuring only well-produced, high-quality content, YouTube introduced its “Google Preferred” program in late April. Preferred enable brands to advertise exclusively against the top 5 percent of content on the site, in areas such as food, music, and gaming. Marketers can pay an even higher rate to allocate some of that inventory to the top 1 percent of videos (Blattberg, 2014). In an effort to seek non-advertising revenue also, YouTube also introduced YouTube Music Key, which is in beta for $10 a month and may be looking to expand into video. Looking at the industry, visual is taking a front seat, as we are seeing more and more photos and videos. As well as more brand and companies are collaborating with the social media stars and influencers, which can instantly put their product or service in front of tens of thousands of viewers. One place that all the networks are looking to make more money is with the sending of money or buying products over their network.

The Client

It was February 4, 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin would launch Facebook. One month later, they

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would expand from Harvard and go to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale (Facebook, n.d.). By the end of 2004, Facebook would reach 1 million users, quite impressive milestone! It wasn’t until September 26, 2006 that Facebook would open registration to anyone and leave the academic only behind. By December 2007, Facebook (n.d.) would reach 58 million users, but two years later, be at 360 million users. Today, there are 864 million daily active users on average, with 703 million mobile daily active users on average. Facebook (n.d.) also have 1.35 billion monthly active users and 1.12 billion mobile monthly active users. Approximately 82.2% of those daily active users come from outside the US and Canada too. These numbers are one of Facebook’s biggest strengths, especially when you compare them to the other large social networks. At the moment, there is no real competition to Facebook. However, what makes Facebook popular is also a weakness for the brand. Facebook doesn’t have a paid premium model for their regular users. Facebook has also plateaued in growth, which could become an issue with potential investors. One might even consider Facebook’s reputation as a weakness. Facebook over the few last years, have been in the news for privacy issues, mood manipulation, and not delivering clear privacy settings to their users. Facebook operates in the Internet software/services industry, within the technology services sector and has a market cap of $217.0 billion (CNN Money, n.d.). As of September 30, 2014, Facebook had 8,348 employees, located in 14 U.S. locations and 35 international offices (Facebook, n.d.). At the close on 1/23/15, Facebook stock finished a +.23%, at $77.83 USD (WSJ, 2015). Almost as well known as the name ‘Facebook,’ is the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Mark is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure (Facebook, n.d.). Mark made a great decision when he brought on his new COO, Sheryl Sandberg. Sheryl oversees the firm’s business operations and prior to Facebook, she was the VP of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Clinton, management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank (Facebook, n.d.). While both are the two top execs at Facebook, they also sit on the board of directors as well. Other notables on the board are Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, Jan Koum, founder and CEO of WhatsApp, and Peter Thiel, Partner at Founders Fund.

The Product, Service or Issue

The company offers advertisers a unique combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement to enhance the value of their ads. Their services include timeline, news feed, messages, lists, ticker and mobile apps (CNN Money, n.d.). Facebook’s app insights is a tool that helps provide analytics to marketers, brands, and community managers of Facebook Pages, Facebook Apps and Social Plugins for their websites. The Ads Manager helps marketers to create ads, set up sponsored

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stories and manage their ads budget. The Ads Manager also helps them to measure the impact of their campaigns (Facebook, n.d.). Facebook has made 42 acquisitions dating back to 2007, which has helped the company grow and profit. Facebook acquired WhatApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging app, back in February 2014 for a $22 billion. Facebook hopes it will accelerate growth and engagement for both company (Okyle, 2014). Another Facebook product that was acquired in June 2012 and you didn’t hear much about, was the acquisition of face.com, a facial recognition software. The idea for this acquisition was to improve their own face recognition abilities for tagging friends in photos (Okyle, 2014). The most notable of all the acquisition came when Facebook acquired Instagram, a popular photo sharing website that now boasts over 300-million active users. Facebook snagged Instagram to enhance their own photo sharing features, as well as prevent a competitor from getting to Instagram first (Okyle, 2014). The Instagram deal was originally announced in April 2012, but officially close in September, for $1 billion. Looking at how important video is to Facebook’s feed algorithm, their first purchase might be one of the most important, but not really publicized. Facebook purchased Parakey, a web-operating system that makes image, video, and writing transfer to the web easier. Facebook jumped on Parakey to integrate the technology with their Facebook Mobile app (launched in July 2010) and enhance their own services (Okyle, 2014). Facebook’s second and third acquisitions have also helped with updated news feed and the “like” button, with the friendfeed acquisition and Octazen, which expanded Facebook features and made it possible for users to sign-in to other services with their Facebook log-in. Honorable mentions acquisitions go to the old social network Friendster, which Facebook acquired back in August 2010 for ~$40 million. Also acquired in 2010 was Sharegrove, a private conversation website, integrated into Facebook Groups feature (Okyle, 2014). One of the most exciting and yet to see how it will be used, but Facebook acquired a startup that create virtual reality headset and other technologies. That startup name is, Oculus VR and it was a deal announced in March 2014 for a price of $2 billion (Okyle, 2014). Aside from the cool technology, one of Facebook’s main reasons for making these buys, is the talent acquisitions to build and strengthen Facebook features (Okyle, 2014). Ultimately it also helps to maintain existing user-based and reach new members, as well as increases the value for investors. In an effort to continue making more improvements, Facebook also decided it would shut down Facebook Gifts, as it would be working on commerce initiatives that they wanted to concentrate on. Those include the Buy button for making ecommerce purchases within Facebook, Auto-Fill for auto-populating your billing info in other shopping apps, and Custom Audiences that let brick-and-mortar merchants retarget Facebook ads to existing customers (Constine, 2014). By selling ads and potentially charging a revenue share for products bought through the Buy button, Facebook could make plenty of money on commerce without having to host its own Gifts store (Constine, 2014).

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Promotions

According to Facebook's quarterly report, marketing and sales expenses in the third quarter of 2014 and the first nine months of 2014 increased $141 million, or 61%, and $351 million, or 50%, respectively, compared to the same periods in 2013. Facebook's user-, marketer-, and developer-facing marketing expenses also increased $28 million and $61 million in the third quarter and the first nine months of 2014 , respectively, compared to the same periods in 2013. Facebook rarely spends on traditional advertising, as previous attempts have been slightly confusing to the public. In 2012, Facebook ran its first commercial, in an effort to celebrate the social media platform's 1 billion active monthly users (Ulanoff, 2012). The debut commercial likened Facebook to a chair, then a doorbell, then an airplane, then a bridge, and it only wound up confusing people, with all of these analogies. It wouldn't be until 2014 that Facebook would take a try at a commercial for the social giant and this time it seems to have paid off. Earlier in the year, Facebook decided to have a stand-alone messaging app and you would no longer be able to access the messages within the Facebook mobile app itself. This wound up infuriating many Facebook users and quite frankly, Facebook did a bad job at explaining why they were doing this in the first place. So in late 2014, Facebook kicked off an ad spot to encourage its members to use its Messenger app with an adorable ad called, "Say Love You Better" (Love, 2014).

Source: ibitimes.com

The ad tells a story accented with digital animations of a couple who exchange lovey-dovey messages through the app - photo, video, and text - against the soundtrack of an especially twee arrangement of Elvis' "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You." The ad is being tested in the Los Angeles and Chicago markets to start, and may roll out to a wider audience once the company gauges reception (Love, 2014). It's safe to say this is a wise move, considering many were confused with why Facebook thought it needed to create a traditional media in 2012.

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Market Share

Source: Pew Research Center

In a new survey conducted in September 2014, the Pew Research Center found that Facebook remains by far the most popular social media site. While its growth has slowed, the level of user engagement with the platform has increased. Other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn saw significant increases over the past year in the proportion of online adults who now use their sites (2015).

Competition Social media is truly evolving and growing and those brands and businesses that aren’t using these emerging channels are running the risk of missing out on the future generations and current generation. Currently we are seeing millennials and the younger generations moving towards more visual apps, such as Snapchat and Instagram. Snapchat (2015) has started to branch out with their Discover feature, a new way to explore Stories from different editorial teams. However it doesn’t end there for the friendly little ghost, with brands now being able to advertise on the platform, at a steep $750,000 a day (Sloane, 2015). Since its launch, McDonald’s, Samsung, Macy’s and Electronic Arts have been early Snapchat sponsors and are hoping the platform helps them reach the coveted teenage audience (Sloane, 2015). Outside of these visual apps, more users are also moving towards that peer-to-peer communication that was mentioned earlier, as their way to communicate with those beyond a picture and a sentence. Both past and present users are looking to communicate with their friends, family, and colleagues. The biggest difference falls into how the current users communicate, mainly shorter in brevity and more visual. One consistency in all the users of all the networks is the privacy issue.

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Facebook is the king in most social categories, but takes a backseat to the king of online video, YouTube. While YouTube remains a massive, dominant player in the world of digital video, Facebook is starting to challenge their undisputed title. Facebook has started to court publishers, YouTube stars and other key partners in the looking battle for digital video dominance. The social giant even signed a deal with the NFL in December, for access to short video clips, such as highlights and news, revealing the massive scope of its video ambitions (Blattberg, 2014). At the same time as Facebook is challenging YouTube video reign, others are taking on Facebook for the money processing space. Snapchat rolled out a new feature in late 2014, where Snapchat users can send money to each other. The payments processing is handled by Square. Once users add a debit card account, they can start sending and receiving money by swiping into chat, typing a dollar sign and amount and hitting the green button to send (Molina, 2014). Twitter is in the same arena as Facebook, as they are working on their own “buy” button, allowing you to buy goods right from within the app. Twitter has already starting rolling out the new feature to a small percentage of their U.S. user and this will grow as time goes on. It’s an early step as they transform from a social networking service and in to a kind of e-commerce engine. (Metz, 2014). Tweet embedded with Buy buttons needn’t be advertisements, or “sponsored tweets,” meaning businesses needn’t pay to give them prime placement in front of the public at large. But the move is designed to make Twitter more attractive to outside businesses – and keep users on the service – and naturally, this help drive advertising dollars (Metz, 2014).

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Outside of the visual and commerce, all these platforms compete on number of active users and number of new users. While Facebook has the most monthly active users, with 1.35 billion, but has slowed in growth, due to reaching a saturation point. Tumblr on the other hand has a very active user base, with the last nine months, growing by 120% and by comparison, Facebook only grew 2% (Lunden, 2014). In an overall member growth, Pinterest took the lead with 57% growth while Facebook’s member base grew by 6% (Lunden, 2014).

Snapchat – with an emphasis on teen and 20-somethings users, is the fastest growing of them all, up 56% this year. Following closely behind is the Facebook Messenger and Instagram – a sign of not just how Facebook’s mobile apps continue to represent the company’s growth drivers, but also how its push to drive more users to the standalone app by cutting out messaging from the main app has helped it grow (Lunden, 2014). Lunden (2014) points out that one takeaway from this is while Facebook is ahead of the rest of the pack by a big margin, there is a lot of flux among the rest of the field of social platforms.

Resources

Facebook could technically have a few intervening publics, starting with digital marketers that stay aware of what the Facebook does and relays those new changes to friends and family or wherever their level of influence lies. Another group that would carry influential status toward the general population is the tech blogs, like TechCrunch, Mashable, CNET, and Gizmodo.

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SWOT Analysis

(Strengths) 1. It is the largest social network, with 2.2 billion total users. 2. Built a strong portfolio of acquisitions, which prepares them for every user

behavior. 3. Has a wealth of information on their users, making it the most loved platform for

marketers and advertisers. 4. Signing up for a new account is really easy and quick. 5. Heavy integration across multiple platforms and websites. Making it easy and

allowing you sign up for things with your Facebook log-in. 6. They offer in-depth analytics within their own platform.

(Weaknesses)

1. Slowed new user growth due to reaching a saturation point. 2. They don’t offer a premium/paid subscription model, like LinkedIn. 3. A majority of their revenue comes from advertisers, marketers, and brands. 4. With Facebook making it easy to create a personal account or page, you also

get a lot of fake or spoof accounts. (Opportunities)

1. Continue expansion into unreached countries. 2. Create more revenue paths outside of Facebook advertising, like a premium

service for users/pages (2 model tiers). 3. As more brands make it easier to make a purchase, expand buy button to

internet-ready TV and buy within Facebook. 4. Embrace digital influencers from the millennials and younger generations.

(Threats)

1. Users blocking cookies with private browsing feature on their mobile or desktop. 2. Hackers/ Social identity theft. 3. Spammers and viruses. 4. Google changing their algorithm to lower rankings of their biggest competitor,

Facebook.

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Public Profiles

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

Based off of Facebook profiles of people aged 18 and older, 54% are women and 46% men. Largest age group for both men and women being the 25-34 group, followed by the 18-24 (Lafferty, 2014).

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

Almost fifty percent of Facebook users are married, coming in at 46%. Followed by singles, at 33%, in a relationship at 18%, and engaged at 4% (Lafferty, 2014).

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Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

According to those Facebook profiles over age 18, 63% are college graduates, followed by 29% as high school graduates only (Lafferty, 2014).

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

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One statistic that stood out in the household category was that 72% of Facebook users are renters versus only 28% homeowners. Looking at the income levels, the largest, coming in at 29%, is the $50-75K group (Lafferty, 2014).

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

The majority of Facebook users spending patterns shows they prefer to use any card (94%), with no major preference, followed by their bankcard (88%) (Lafferty, 2014). With so many no having a preference, this shows that Facebook buy button could really take off in the coming years.

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Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

Sales leads at 17% for job titles, followed by education and library, tied with management at 13%. This is considered to be the likely industries where people word based on self-reported data on Facebook (Lafferty, 2014).

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

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The data shows how the selected audience accessed Facebook in the last 30 days, based on users activity and environmental data. Desktop still leads by 16% over Android, 14% over mobile web, and 17% over iPhone/iPod (Lafferty, 2014).

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

The data above shows what the audience performed on Facebook based off of their Facebook user activity and environmental data (Lafferty, 2014). From the data, it seems that Facebook users are mainly reacting to others’ content compared to creating their own.

Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

These are the top liked pages on Facebook, which are probably relevant to your audience, with Walmart coming in at number one, followed by Amazon, and then Target (Lafferty, 2014).

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Source: AdWeek (SocialTimes)

Retail is number one for top liked pages by category, followed by sports (Lafferty, 2014). A combination that Facebook could leverage with the professional sports leagues and perhaps even division I schools and even down into the lower ranks. Summary Looking over the data, you can almost say the main group is a well educated millennial, with some money to spend and this is important to Facebook, at least it should be. If Facebook is to keep this group from straying to other networks, they have to continue to evolved the platform and be trustworthy. No better place to start, than by making their privacy features easy to access and navigate. Also keeping it clear what changes are coming and being transparent about them.

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How often do you go to a website or download an app that asks you if you want to use your Facebook login, to sign-in to their app? How often do you choose the Facebook option, cause it’s convenient? Even though you get that little notification that they won’t post anything without your consent, still makes you wonder. Do you want to see every time your friend scored 11 points playing “Qi” in Words with Friends? What do you do with all those Farmville requests? Facebook is becoming a network of over-sharing and noisiness, and it’s pushing more of Gen Y and Gen Z to other networks. It doesn’t help that Facebook has so much data on us either. In the past, Facebook had a policy of keeping your data forever, even if you left the network. The simmering of gripes about the policy sparked into controversy in 2009, when Facebook changed its terms of service. Today, Facebook only retains messages you send to another user or posting in a group, even if you delete your account (Luckerson, 2014). Another privacy concern for some came from a technology called Beacon, which would automatically post items your purchased from companies like Travelocity and Fandango (Luckerson, 2014). Eventually Facebook would allow uses to opt-out of this, but the program was scrapped and Facebook paid $9.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by disgruntled users (Luckerson, 2014).

Situational Analysis

Source: Mashable.com

Facebook has continued on a downward spiral when it comes to their privacy and ethics. While it has yet to put them into full crisis mode, it is slowly eroding trust with all Facebook users, with some more than others. Most important group for Facebook to lose, is that millennial user. In October 2013, Twitter dethroned Facebook as the site most important to teens and if Millennials no longer care about Facebook, you can also be sure that they don’t care about a brand’s ads that Mr. Zuckerberg is paying paid for (Hutchinson, 2014). In short, if Millennials are spending less time on

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Facebook, then marketers are going to start looking to other alternatives for their marketing dollars. One of the biggest barriers that Facebook is up against is the fact they lost the cool factor. Facebook could remedy this with the recent acquisition of Oculus and bringing this into the Facebook experience. Another barrier that Facebook has to overcome is the fact it’s just becoming too overwhelming. Many people are finding Facebook too noisy, among the targeted ads, Instagram pictures and shared articles, there’s very little room for real socializing between friends on the Facebook Timeline (Casti, 2013). Finally, tying back to the beginning, Facebook has to get a handle of constant change of the privacy settings. We have all heard it said, “Watch what you put on Facebook!” In 2013, Facebook made privacy changes, which ensured no user could hide from search anymore. Facebook has made progress in the privacy settings for users, but could go further by creating short videos that could be accessed through a Facebook specific privacy page to follow and learn from.

Core Problem Statement

Due to Facebook’s privacy issues, millennial Facebook users are losing trust, and could result in lost advertising dollars from brands and marketers.

Facebook PR Campaign Goal

• Aim to improve millennial Facebook users trust and opinions of Facebook within the next twelve months.

Currently, Facebook is still at the top of the social networks, but that could change over the next year to 18-months. More and more are using Facebook as their social newspaper, as a way to stay up on events, as well as what friends and family are doing. As Facebook use to be a place where people were willing to engage more, they are taking a backseat and leaning more towards the voyeur side of Facebook. Millennials have emerged into adulthood with low levels of social trust (Pew Research, 2014). It doesn’t help that the Federal Trade Commission slapped the company on the wrist with regular privacy audits for 20 years because it “deceived consumers” with its privacy promises (Luckerson, 2014). With the continuing growth of Facebook’s sister site, Instagram and also with Shapchat, Facebook has to accomplish two things: 1) ensure users understand the latest updates of privacy changes, as well as the settings feature. 2) promote and make a push for the standalone Messenger app, as way to communicate in a more intimate setting, if they are to take on Snapchat.

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Facebook PR Campaign Objectives

• In the next 30 days, achieve 100% awareness of new privacy changes with Facebook employees.

When a brand needs to deliver a message to outside publics and stakeholders, it should always start with their own employees and staff, first. It is these employees that can turn into your biggest advocates and brand champions, as well as spread that message with their own sphere of influence. Aside from the brand evangelism, without a dedicated, effective internal communications program, an organization allows others to determine what information (or disinformation) is communicated to employees about their organization (Brown, 2002). A good internal communications program not only affects organizational and operational success, but it has a considerable impact on external functions such as marketing, community and government relations, and investor relations (Brown, 2002).

• In the next 60 days, increase awareness by 50% of the privacy changes with Facebook users through newsfeed notification by Facebook.

In today’s digital age, it’s more important now than ever to make sure you try to control your own narrative and not let the media run away with the facts. Facebook makes changes to their privacy settings, then it should come through a Facebook notification that is pushed out automatically and in simple terms to understand.

• In the next 120 days, increase Facebook millennial engagement by 15%. It’s vital for Facebook to increase millennial engagement, as they are the largest demographic in the U.S., representing a third of its population. To publishers, brands and marketers, millennials are potential lifetime customers, if managed appropriately (Blattberg, 2014). By seeing a growth in engagement with the millennial group, they could see growth for other age groups as well. By seeing an up-tick in engagement, Facebook would more than likely also see more money from brands wanting to market on Facebook.

• Publish twelve (two per month) “Privacy setting how-to’s” videos that achieve impressions of 5 million per month, for each video.

Video is all the rage in social media, as it delivers a clear message compared to a written blog post, and it helps to humanize a brand or company. Millennial men watch a copious amount of online video, more than any other demographic, according to research by Nielsen (Blattberg, 2014). In the U.S., the average millennial male spends 2 hours and 15 minutes each week consuming videos on the Internet (Blattberg, 2014). With the rise in Vine and Instagram videos, short 2 minutes or less videos that give

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quick help or advice to protecting yourself and what you want or don’t want to share on Facebook. Key Publics

Millennials We have seen multiple variations for who fits into the millennial demographics, however, Nielsen refers to millennials as being between the ages of 18-36, noting that their behavior may not be homogenous. In some cases, Nielsen breaks the age bracket down into younger (18-27) and older (27-36) Millennials (MarketingCharts, 2014).

Millennials are as big a demographic as their boomer parents, with 77 million millennials between 18 and 36, comprising 24% of the US population (Cohen, 2014). Millennials are digital natives, as they have taken the lead with new platforms in the digital era. As one example points out, 81% of millennials are on Facebook, where their generation’s median friend count is 250, far higher than that of older age groups (PewResearch, 2014). Millennials are the most racially diverse generation in American history, a trend driven by the large wave of Hispanics and Asian immigrants who have been coming to the U.S. for the past half century, and whose U.S.-born children are now aging into adulthood (PewResearch, 2014). The growth in diversity will only accelerate as they start their families. Nielsen expects the Hispanic population to grow by 167 percent by 2050 (Nielsen, 2014).

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Source: Nielsen, 2014

The media income for younger millennials is $25k, while it’s almost double that ($48K) for older millennials. Almost 1 in 4 (23% to be exact) have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, making them the most educated generation (MarketingCharts, 2014). Cause work plays an important role in the overall job search and hiring process with Millennials as a motivating factor for seeking and accepting a job. According to Millennial employees surveyed, a full 92% felt they were actively contributing to a company having a positive effect on the world (Achieve, 2014).

Source: Achieve, 2014

Along with making a positive impact, family matter to the millennials, in part this could be attributable to their ethnic backgrounds. 21% of millennials are married, which is about half the number of boomers at that age (Cohen, 2014). 63% of millennials think they’re responsible for taking care of an elderly parent. This breaks the common myth that millennials are narcissistic. When in reality, millennials care aobut self-expression, but they aren’t totally self-absorbed. They put importance on taking care of their parents in old age and making a social impact (Nielsen, 2014). Music plays a big part in the life of a millennial, as they download and stream more music than other generations (Cohen, 2014).

Source: Nielsen, 2013

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When it comes to Facebook, 57% of millennials use Facebook to coordinate social plans at least once a week. While 62% use Facebook to post about what they’re doing, where they are, and/or who they’re with (Andras, 2014). However, Facebook’s popularity is dropping, as Facebook has lost 8% of those 18 to 24. This decline cannot be seen all across the board, but among millennials, the up and coming check books of the economy, it has become significant enough to warrant hesitation with marketing budgets (Hutchison, 2014). This is where finding brand advocates, brand evangelists and brand influencers comes in to play! According to January 2014 polling conducted by Harris Interactive for The Webby Awards, 68% of 18-t0-34 year old social media users surveyed were at least somewhat likely to make a purchase after seeing a friend’s post (eMarketer, 2014). Another interesting statistic shows that millennials aren’t just the first to try new technology, but also a new product. Nearly sinx in 10 millennial internet users said they had been the first out of their friends and family to try a new product or service (eMarketer, 2014). So as one of the largest generations is entering adulthood, lets take a look at some of the psychographic breakdown of millennials:

1. Confident Connecteds – This group is satisfied and upwardly mobile, and they advocate for their generation. In social media, they’ll post about news that matters to them. They have a strong point of view but are seldom offensive. They’re a group of motivators, posting inspirational quotes, business tips, and guidance (Handley, 2013). Confident Connecteds are the most likely of the four groups to engage with brands in positive ways. They are avid sharers who respond to promotions, hashtags, giveaways, and sweepstakes. For them, these action are less about branding themselves and more about sharing great deals with others and engaging with the brand in order to receive something (Handley, 2013).

2. Youthful Pursuits – Seem to be a conflicted group. Through social accounts, they display a mix of self-deprecation and overconfidence. Most posts are centered on themselves rather than other people, news, or brands. Social is their soapbox, and they use it to air drama, complain, and discuss the mundane (Handley, 2013).

3. Indie Dreamers – talk in a similar way, but will buzz more about good and bad

experiences with a brand, either by talking about them or directly to them using a company’s Twitter handle. They also mock those who are out of style or outdated. This means they can be a brand’s greatest advocates or biggest detractors depending on their whims (Handley, 2013). This group is well-adjusted and socially aware, and they enjoy artistic expression. They use social media to share their most valuable opinions and unique life experiences, as well as to connect with their friends and followers (Handley, 2013).

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4. Creatures of Comfort – this group consumes a lot of media and, therefore, they consume a lot of ads. But that doesn’t mean they respond well to them. This group is more likely to complain about advertising and openly ridicule brands with which they have had a bad experience. They don’t talk about the brands/products they aspire to own, but more about the products they use in their daily life, like technology, food, and beverages (Handley, 2013). In general, this group appears complacent and self-centered, though they’re very connected to the online world. They post about everything: life in general, what they’re doing at the time, conversations with friends, thoughts about the media and products they consume, and aspirations (or lack thereof). For this group, social media is their method of socializing (Handley, 2013).

The millennial generation views on Facebook vary across the demographic, with some having left the network, other having came back, and the rest holding on to their accounts. Those who did leave did so feeling that Facebook was just too overwhelming with all the noise (Casti, 2013). For those who stayed on and use Facebook on daily basis, it has become their hub for connecting with friends and family, as well as how they plan events for social outings. Millennials are motivated by being connected and knowing everything that is going on within their networks, also known as FOMO (fear of missing out). So who or what influences the millennial generation? This is a generation that is influenced first and foremost by their friends, as they tend to be less trusting of all generations, while remaining optimistic on the future. Gen Y tends to be influenced by celebrities that they look up to, as well as those charities doing good in the world (think Charity Water). The millennial generation can play a pivotal role in Facebook’s growth within engagement, specifically. The millennials are expected to have $2.45 trillion of purchasing power worldwide across multiple channels, this year. Marketers are salivating to get a piece of their hard earned dollars and Facebook could play a big part, if millennials start engaging more on the network.

Millennial Generation Primary Message

Our second objective in week 3 stated that we wanted to increase awareness of the privacy changes by 50% and within 60 days. Our primary message will be, “Facebook has recently made changes to the privacy settings, making it easier for you to have control over what you want to give access to being seen. Understanding these new changes will help empower each Facebook user and let them know what they give approval to.”

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Millennial Generation Secondary Message

• 27% of millennials worried about personal identifying information, such as vacation plans, work info, etc. being shared or used against them.

• 25% of millennials worried only if the information was shared with marketers. • 21% of millennials weren’t worried at all. • 23% of millennials do not post personal information. • 3% do not know how they feel (Statista, 2014).

Source: Statista

• An overwhelming 81% of millennials set their privacy restrictions to either

limiting only certain information to be seen or very little at all (Statista, 2014).

Marketers/ Advertisers

These marketers tend to fall into two main age groups, the 25-34 and 35-44 age groups. The biggest group being the 25-34 and majority are white males. They have a bachelor’s degree and usually in the marketing, communications or even journalism. They work full-time for an agency that helps medium to large-sized business and corporations. They purchase their coffee on a daily basis and get their latest updates on the news from Twitter and even Mashable or CNN. They vote democratic and are normally single, with no kids. They are interested in the latest and greatest in the world of technology, as they see themselves as hybrid marketers. They pride themselves on learning on daily basis, so they can push the creative envelope with and for their clients.

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This group of marketers and advertisers are motivated to increase engagement with their audiences, increase awareness of their products or services, and ultimately track social conversions. This demographic is reliant on Facebook, as one of their digital networks for targeting a specific audience and reach those they’re currently with. However, the issue for most brands, marketers, and advertisers comes down to the decrease view of their posts. The “pay to play” model isn’t working on Facebook, as these marketers are allocating more budget to getting their ads, posts, and offers seen by their ideal audiences. It’s leaving many marketers frustrated and while they still use Facebook, they are looking to other outlets for reaching their target audience. The marketers and advertisers are influenced by a number of websites that highlight key changes on Facebook, as well as social media as a whole. Sites like Ad Age, AdWeek, Social Media Examiner, Mari Smith, Jon Loomer, Jay Baer, Lee Odden, Joe Pullizi, and many others. As a result of the constant changing in social media and not having enough time to dig in deep to themselves, it is giving these thought leaders more influences throughout the industry. These marketers and advertisers can help keep Facebook boosting their bottom line, through buying ads and utilizing Facebook’s promoted post features, to name a few. Ultimately, this affects their stock price and how Facebook is viewed among Wall Street, as well as potential and current investors.

Marketers/ Advertiser Primary Message

Facebook is essential for an effective digital marketing campaign. Ensure you are getting the most with your budget by using Facebook marketing tools.

Marketers/Advertisers Secondary Message

• 70% of B2B marketers have acquired customers through Facebook (Karr, 2014). • Facebook remains the most popular network among U.S. adults, with 71% of

online adults now active Facebook users, up from 67% in 2012 (TrackMaven, 2014).

• 890 million daily active users on average, as of December 2014 (Facebook, 2014).

• 745 million mobile daily active users on average, as of December 2014 (Facebook, 2014).

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Investors

According to the VALS, the investor is an achiever, 43-year old male, with an MBA. He is married and has two kids, living in a major metropolitan location. He reads his online subscription to the Wall Street Journal and watches Jim Cramer’s Mad Money and Maria Bartiromo, all from his iPad. His home has bundled TV/ internet service, with his most trusted media being the internet. He keeps up to date on the latest happenings in the tech/ social world, being that it can affect his buying decisions and stock portfolio. He is a critical fan of Facebook, meaning he criticizes the areas where he thinks they are making bad moves, as it will affect the value of the shares he owns. Overall, he wants to see Facebook succeed for the interest of his nest egg. With the internet being 40% of his trusted media, followed by TV at 28%, the achieving investor is influenced by sites like, Forbes, Fortune, Money, and Wall Street Journal Online (Strategic Business Insights, n.d.). If the investor sees Facebook as a stock pick worth investing in, cause he feels the stock price is due to rise, then he will invest more into the company. This optimistic outlook by the investor will help keep the Facebook stock price evaluation strong and help with Wall Street’s message to other possible investors. Overall, this will raise the value of the Facebook brand.

Investors Primary Message

Social media is becoming a primary communication tool and with a steady increase in growth, Facebook is a solid stock in an investors’ portfolio. Diversify your investment portfolio with the largest social network, Facebook.

Investors Secondary Message

• Facebook has seen a 3 million user increase in each quarter of 2014 for daily active users, with a 10 million increase YOY (Facebook, 2015).

• In 2014, Facebook saw a consistent 2 million user increase for daily active mobile users, per quarter (Facebook, 2015).

• Facebook (2015) had an increase in revenue, Q4’13 to Q4’14, of $1,250 (in millions) from advertising.

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Privacy Advocates/ Groups

The privacy advocate is a male, aged 45 to 65 and married with children. His education is an MBA and he has a household income of $100K+. He is concerned with the safety and privacy of his family, which explains his career choice. He enjoys going online to dig up all the data and latest information on any of tech companies. He finds fulfillment in his career and with his family. He is motivated by challenging those who he feels takes advantage of the everyday citizen and their privacy rights. His relationship with Facebook is comparable to the story of David and Goliath and it drives his hunger for privacy change. He’s influenced by privacy-groups, like the Federal Trade Commission, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue. By getting him on board with Facebook’s privacy changes, this should help give Facebook positive earned media impressions and as a result, help ease the Facebook users’ minds about their own data and privacy settings.

Source: AppleInsider

Privacy Advocates/ Groups Primary Message

Facebook understand that privacy is important to its community. The new privacy settings let you take control of what you share and allow others to see.

Privacy Advocates/ Groups Secondary Message

• Facebook’s new Privacy Basics feature walks users through the steps required to tweak their privacy settings to their own liking.

• Interactive guides are available for customizing settings in three areas – “what others see about you,” “how others interact with you,” and “what you see” – that show the process needed to make changes.

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• Details about how location information is collected and used when on mobile devices.

• Explanation of the way Facebook analyzes device data, like battery and signal strength, to improve its apps.

Additional details describing how Facebook shares data between its services, like WhatsApp and Instagram (AppleInsider, 2014).

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Facebook Strategies & Tactics Facebook has four primary publics that validate Facebook’s performance and in some cases, vital to their business and growth. Our key publics identified previously were the millennials, investors, marketers and advertisers, and the privacy groups and advocates. The main goal of this campaign is to improve the trust and opinions of Facebook by that millennial audience. The underlying theme of the proposed strategies and tactics is about relationship with external groups and building or developing those relationships. Facebook wants to show that human dignity is highly valued and Facebook’s privacy policies and procedures are designed accordingly (Wilson & Ogden, 2008).

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Millennials) Within 120 days of launching the campaign, we plan to increase Facebook millennial engagement by 15%. Facebook has made a big emphasis on video in the feed and has continued pushing this route, taking on YouTube’s dominance. As one example, 24-year-old YouTuber ‘PewDiePie’ is raking in $4 million a year for his gaming videos, with 27 million subscribers (Kain, 2014). Michelle Phan has made over $2 million in profits from her widely popular makeup channel on YouTube and has over 7 million subscribers (Women24, 2014). On the other side, there is viral video comedian, iJustine who has a net worth of over $2 million (Women, 2014). Partnering with these YouTube stars would not only draw millennials back over to Facebook more, but could also evolve the video side of Facebook too. The first tactic plays right into millennials and authenticity, with Mark delivering a personal pitch to each star. It would not only speak highly of Zuckerberg, but Facebook as a whole and their belief of video on Facebook. In these emailed pitches, we want to make sure we look at three measurements for the email campaign: open rate, click-through rate, and hard bounces. Following along the same lines as what Facebook would do for the marketers and what YouTube already has in place, Facebook would create a playbook for the YouTube stars and how to best reach their potential audience on the world’s largest social network. To help incentivize the stars, Facebook would offer them a $100 ad marketing credit to help with launching their videos over Facebook. With all of these tactics in place, reaching out to the media and letting them know about these partnerships would drive lots of buzz around Facebook and would also affect the perception by marketers and Wall Street.

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Facebook Millennial Strategy Partner with the top YouTube stars, explain how Facebook video could help develop and grow personal brand and give them deeper insights in how their videos are performing.

Facebook Millennial Tactics

• Mark Zuckerberg personalized video pitch to top-tier millennial YouTube stars.

• Provide YouTube star with a “Facebook Brand Video Playbook.”

• Offer $100 Facebook ads voucher.

• Contact media with press release, about video star partnerships.

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Marketers/ Advertisers)

Secure 10 of the biggest marketing and social media bloggers and thought-leaders, in the first 4 weeks of the campaign. Reach the top marketing and social media thought-leaders are key to Facebook’s relevance in social advertising. They influence the marketing and social media industry as a whole. Their opinions influence the decisions of many businesses, as well revered by many B2C and B2B marketers around the country. Looking over the tactics, there are many marketers that may not be at a high-level understanding of all the in’s and out’s of Facebook advertising. Creating a how-to, aka playbook, would help the smallest business looking to make an impact on their bottom line. This would also help create buzz and earned media with those influential marketers who write blog posts about the new resource. Skipping over tactic two and looking at tactic three, big Facebook marketing thought-leaders, Jon Loomer, Mari Smith, and Amy Porterfield would be and should be first at getting their hands on this playbook. All three carry a lot of weight in Facebook marketing and all have written article on the ever popular, Social Media Examiner. Tactic two would be a great for engaging with these social media thought-leaders on a daily basis. This would go beyond the Facebook marketers and include high-level people, such as Jay Baer, Michael Stelzner, Ann Handley, Christopher S. Penn, Brian Solis, and many others.

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Facebook Marketers/ Advertisers Strategy Convince marketers through marketing thought-leaders, that Facebook advertising is essential for marketing to millennials.

Facebook Marketers/ Advertisers Tactics

• Create a, “Marketing on Facebook” playbook for all marketers and advertisers, helping them optimize their campaign and leverage all the available tools.

• Launch a Facebook group for marketing thought-leaders where Facebook can

interact and provide them with content on the latest changes.

• Partner with Mari Smith, Jon Loomer, Dennis Yu, and Amy Porterfield as brand ambassadors.

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Investors)

Gain a 5% increase in Facebook stock investments, in 6-months after campaign start. The investors are diligent and strategic with their money and investments. They use traditional media, with radio and/or television, in keeping up with what happens in the world of social media and tech as it relates to stock prices. In reaching our intended audience, Facebook’s tactics are all about being where they consume content. Our investor demographic listens or watches Squawk Box in the morning and Mad Money with Jim Cramer in the evening. Both shows have the reputation of being influential to your audience. Their credibility is trusted and effective in creating a call-to-action (Ogden & Wilson, 2008, p.55). Once these interviews are acquired, we will release these as on PR Newswire and promote on Facebook’s social channels. Tech analysts like Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, follow the major tech blogs for their ability to garner trusted information out Silicon Valley. Munster himself has become influential in the world of Apple and is constantly getting featured in Forbes articles and video (Forbes, 2012). Sites like TechCrunch, The Next Web, and CNET have become some of those most trusted sources for these analysts. With these sites holding high-levels of trusts with some, it would be an excellent place for Facebook to release company information. Last, the world of tech and those financial analysts who watch all the happenings, have their eye on the annual All Things D conference. The conference first started in 2007

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by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, which it use to be wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company Inc., and was a member of The Wall Street Journal’s Digital Network, where Mossberg and Swisher work. The All Things D conference draws in some of the top minds and leaders in Silicon Valley (Stern, 2013). It also brings in some of the top technology executives to speak at the conference. Tickets for the conference go for $5,500 per ticket and in 2013 Elon Musk took the stage (Stern, 2013). A perfect event for Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg to talk “All Things Facebook.”

Facebook Investor Strategy

Convince investors through media, that Facebook stock is an excellent choice to diversifying their portfolio.

Facebook Investor Tactics

• Acquire key media interviews on most watched financial TV shows and listened to financial radio programs: Mad Money with Jim Cramer and Squawk Box.

• Provide company information on key tech blogs, with the latest happenings and

upcoming changes from acquisitions: TechCrunch, The Next Web, and CNET.

• Land speaking engagements for the All Things D conference with key Facebook executives.

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Privacy Groups/ Advocates)

Publish twelve (two per month) “Privacy how-to” videos that achieve impressions of 5 million per month, for each video. With Facebook making changes to their privacy settings, with simplifying the process and making it easier to change, it’s important they reach out to privacy groups. Facebook giving these groups early access to the how-to videos would not only show a certain level of trust, but also could provide for a level of endorsement by the privacy groups. By planning these initiatives, it would help solve these specific privacy challenges (Ogden & Wilson, 2008, p. 9). The first tactic would be identifying who has the most influence with these privacy groups, advocates, and bloggers. What makes this so much different than all the other

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publics, is it’s all about community versus profit. Facebook understands that what is good for or improves the community will almost always benefit the company as well (Ogden & Wilson, 2008, p. 8). After identifying the key influencers on behalf of Facebook, we would reach out to these influential people with a pitch. Which leads into tactic three, explaining we want to give them early access to the some of the library of how-to videos and in exchange get some of their feedback for this early access.

Facebook Privacy Groups/ Advocates Strategy

Collaborate with the top privacy groups and advocates. Provide them with information about these videos and how it will help safeguard those Facebook users that implement the available settings. After all the information and data has been collected, we would compile this into a report and deliver the results back to Facebook.

Facebook Privacy Groups/ Advocates Tactics

• Compile a list of top privacy groups, advocates, and bloggers.

• Contact privacy groups with a compelling pitch.

• Send media file of the first couple videos and follow-up with post survey of their feedback and approval (endorsements?)

• Compile results to provide to Facebook.

   

     

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Facebook Matrix Evaluation    

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Millennials)

Criteria Millennial engagement on Facebook increased by 15% by 120 days of campaign launch. Tools Using Facebook’s own network, monitor and record millennial engagement increases through Facebook insights.

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Marketers/ Advertisers)

Criteria Secured 10 of the most well known marketing and social media thought-leaders by fourth week of the campaign. Tools Use an email campaign tool, like Cision (n.d.), to reach out to the marketers, with a call-to-action that would report marketers who sign-on for the ambassador-like program.

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Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Investors) Criteria Facebook saw a 5% increase in stock buys at 6-month mark of PR campaign. Tools Monitor, track and record daily share volume on Wall Street through Market Watch. Making sure to report the daily +/- change (MarketWatch, n.d.).

Facebook PR Campaign Objective (Privacy Groups/ Advocates) Criteria Published a total of twelve (two per month) “Privacy how-to’s” videos, which achieved 5 million monthly impressions, for each video. Tools Monitor each video’s reach and views through Facebook Insights (n.d.). Also pay attention to where people are dropping off within the video, for those who don’t watch all the way through.

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Facebook is a brand that everyone knows and this is why we are excited to be given the opportunity to work with such a well-known client. Attached you will find a PR campaign calendar and attached budget for the entire campaign. We are expecting to see a lot of earned media to come from this campaign and were able to keep the cost of the entire campaign below $200,000, with adjusted credits factored. By keeping the costs so low for the entire campaign, we expect a high return on the investment and hit all key public campaign objectives.

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Facebook PR Budget & Calendar (See Attachments)

Millennial Budget and Calendar

Our last group we built a calendar and budget for, are the millennials. To publishers, brands, and marketers, millennials are potential lifetime customers, if managed appropriately (Blattberg, 2014). While Facebook millennial engagement is dropping, it still dominates their smartphones, along with other apps like Spotify and YouTube. This plays into the strategy of partnering with the big YouTube stars, as the collaboration will help to grow Facebook’s video strategy and could introduce new ideas to Facebook video. The value of partnering with YouTube stars, is to make them “Facebook video stars” and steal some share from YouTube’s 43 million user base (Blattberg, 2014). Our overall goal is to drive views to the new videos, drive millennial engagement, which will help deliver more ad revenue for marketers wanting to tap this generation. As a result, we want to see Facebook stock buys increase. All groups tied together and help to drive our budget and calendar for the campaign. We are fairly sure our budget is the lowest and runs more like a lean startup, which helps to foster more creativity in how we reach our intended publics.

Marketers/ Advertisers Budget and Calendar

We are most excited about this group, as we get to collaborate with our industry friends. The key influencers we have targeted should play a big role in helping to gain industry buy-in from the rest of the marketing world and help to build Facebook’s main income stream, the ads. The cost have been kept relatively low and the main idea is to foster a place of communication between the ten marketing figures/ brands, which will help them create content focused on Facebook marketing and drive more investment by marketers. The two big ideas here, is to create a “Marketing on Facebook Playbook” and a private group where Facebook will communicate new ideas and happenings. This might be one of the publics that delivers the biggest ROI and will also help to drive some of what happens with the investors. By partnering with these key influencers, it will expand the reach of Facebook in the marketing and advertising community.

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Investors Budget and Calendar

The largest amount of the budget is allocated with our investor group, with a little over $20,000 coming from a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal Newspaper and then an adjusted $150,000 with a front sponsorship ad on WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal (n.d.) is America’s largest newspaper by paid circulation with more than 2.2 million subscribers and is the exact crowd we want to get our message in front of. The ad will serve as what we like to call, “Brand Polishing” and help build a positive view by potential stock investors. The price includes the amount of time the ad runs, but this isn’t the only tactic we want to use for this group. We are aiming to acquire some key media interviews, on shows like Mad Money and Squawk Box. We will be sending out Facebook-branded swag bags, complete with a hat, water bottle, and 2GB USB flash drive. The drive will serve as a gift, as well as feature some extra data for potential interviewers. Locking up these interviews for Facebook executives will play an important part in showing what the leadership of Facebook is doing and planning going forward and help to grow the targeted 5% Facebook investment objective.

Privacy Groups Budget and Calendar

Our first key public, the privacy groups and advocates had an allocated budget of $23,402, with a majority coming from a projected $18,000 for storyboarding and video production cost. This cost covers all aspects of video through final completion, for all twelve videos throughout the year. It is also important we get a good production team, cause experience and expertise matter more than any other factor and, all things being equal, you do tend to get what you pay for. There are many moving parts in the creation of a video, but at the end of the day, you are paying for the expertise and experience of the key people responsible for making these videos (Fox, 2010). This amount plays a big part in the overall campaign and teaching people how to set their new, easy-to-use privacy settings. This is content will also play a role in other key publics and help with other strategies and tactics throughout the life of the campaign. The overall strategy with these privacy groups and advocates is to get them engaged as early as possible. We will also conduct a pre-survey questionnaire and see how their feelings are about these videos and once we get feedback, we will add some as Facebook privacy ambassadors. Questionnaires are very cost effective when compared to face-to-face interviews. Written questionnaires also become even more cost effective as the number of research questions increases (StatPac, n.d.). Think of this as a partnership with privacy groups, which like Apple and their environmental affiliations, should help with Facebook reputation. However, this isn’t our campaign objective, it is to send out two videos per month that achieve 5M impressions. Between Facebook sending out these videos each month and the partnerships, we believe this will start to pick up momentum with others tech blogs and help Facebook in informing the community.

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References

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Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015, January 16). Economy at a glance: United States.

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