We have all heard about how it feels like to work at Google and how Google is the trend setter of creating the perfect environment for creativity and employee retention. But Facebook is different. Rarely have we ever heard about how it feels like to work with Mike Zuckerberg, a company that employs more than a 1,000 able people must have a story or two to share.
The fact that rarely anything about working at Facebook, or with Zuckerberg, is featured in the media made me curious to learn more about.
The Beginning
Zuck Man
Mark Zuckerberg was somewhat of a local celebrity at Harvard in the fall of 2003. His first site Facemash was a hit at campus; a hot-or-not site for Harvard. Due to that popularity, he was recommended to code another project.
During that time Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra were on the lookout for a programmer to code their idea for them. They wanted to create a social media network for students at Harvard and then potentially expand it to other universities. Based on the recommendation they received, they contacted Mark, and both parties agreed to start working on the project. While at first Mark was enthusiastic about the project, shortly his tone and enthusiasm waded. He went from saying “I read over all the stuff you sent and it seems like it shouldn’t take too long to implement, so we can talk about that after I get all the basic functionality up tomorrow night” to “The week has been pretty busy thus far, so I haven’t gotten a chance to do much work on the site or even think about it really“.
Honda Accord Crosstour — Learn Social Media by.. Failure
Stat Box
Campaign Name: Honda Accord Crosstour Facebook Fan page
URL: www.facebook.com/accordcrosstour
SM Channels used: Facebook
Target Audience: Facebook & Honda Users and Car enthusiasts
Date: Sept 2009
Campaign Duration: Ongoing
Ugly? or Fugly?
It’s time to talk about a campaign that failed miserably. This is one of those!
Given the amount of money and time that goes into designing a new car it is easy to get blind-sighted by your own ego and lose the ability to evaluate your product objectively. It also didn’t help much that the marketing wheel of the industry was a closed loop and controlled for limiting any dissenting view of a new product.
Car manufacturers had a fairly simple marketing cycle for their cars, they would unveil their cars at international shows, have specialized publications which depended on handouts from the industry review their cars and make sure that the reviews are gentle and not scathing, and then wait for the people to decide with their bucks whether the car will flop or not.
The internet and social media changed everything, now everyone and anyone is a critic and if you are at the bad side of your audience on the internet then the whole world will know about it. So when car manufacturers like Ford and Honda tested the waters of social media marketing some of them forgot that on social media the audience is in control.
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