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How Movie “The Social Network” Will Impact Facebook’s PR

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Tomorrow, the movie “The Social Network” opens in theaters in the US. The movie is a portrayal of the very early days of what is now known as Facebook.  Based on the impression Mark Zuckerberg gave last week while on Oprah, it doesn’t sound like it is a very flattering portrayal. Will this just be a flash in the pan, perhaps even a flop of a movie (Sony Entertainment + actor/singer Justin Timberlake), or will this get traction?  In a world that believes, “there is no such thing as bad PR” as a marketer what impact do you think the movie will have?

How Movie “The Social Network” will impact Facebook’s PR

Going to watch this movie?  I am.

Movie The Social Network – Trailer

Mark Zuckerberg’s Take On the Movie As Reported by CelebTV.com


Mark Zuckerberg Announces $100 Million Grant on Oprah

Also, in case you missed it here’s a Google Me Prediction with Chris Lang.

Your Turn.

What do you think the PR impact will be for Facebook as a result of this movie?

  • Another 500,000,000 friends?
  • No effect.
  • PR blow?
  • Other?

Chime in below.

Facebook Marketing Strategy, movie the social network, social marketing strategy

About Travis Campbell

Husband. Dad. Marketing automator. Author. Educating and coaching others in their online business endeavors. Here's his Google profile.

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  • RachelPRPro

    To be honest, hadn’t thought of it as anything more than entertainment, but movies are a social activity, and perhaps this will give people more perspective on Facebook, and the work involved to create it. I think it will have a neutral effect on PR.

  • http://www.ryanhealy.com/ Ryan Healy

    Hard to say what the actual impact will be. Even if the movie is unflattering, I doubt people will all of a sudden start abandoning Facebook. But who knows? Anything could happen.

    • http://www.MarketingProfessor.com Travis Campbell

      Ryan-

      Understood. To be honest, it doesn’t give the appearance of a “thriller” of sorts, afterall these things happened just a few years ago, seems too recent to be historic.

  • http://www.facebook.com/IamChrisLang Chris Lang

    Before anyone goes to see The Social Network a little education is in order.

    First off read what Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, had to say about his knowledge of Zuckerberg and his morals;

    http://calacanis.com/2010/05/12/the-big-game-zuckerberg-and-overplaying-your-hand/

    Within that post, Calacanis then said this and linked to the real story of Facebook.

    The money quote from Business Insider’s scoop comes from Zuckerberg
    himself: “they made a mistake haha. They asked me to make it for them.
    So I’m like delaying it so it won’t be ready until after the facebook
    thing comes out.” He stalled and sandbagged ConnectU–then
    Zuckerpunched them! Of course, the person he said this to was his
    partner–Eduardo Saverin–who he reportedly screwed as well.

    Read all here: http://bit.ly/bmRip3

    Again, these are Calacanis’s words not mine. Read the bitly link completely, it is paginated so you will have to read more than one page. This is the real stuff taken from Zuckerberg’s subpoenaed computers with IMs and Emails stored on them in temp files.

    Now with some facts under your belt go to see “The Social Network”, and before you write off the theft of Facbook from ConnectU, go there with some real information and then let’s see how much of it is myth as Zuckerberg dispels.

    • John Dugger

      So Chris, looks like you have researched this. Do you think the average Joe seeing this movie will think differently about using the biggest social network in history? If so, how?

  • Jackie

    I think there is more than meets the eye when considering this movie, Facebook, and it’s founder. I just think the american public is so busy, it won’t be meaningful enough to change their attitude, or more importantly their behavior.

  • http://www.facebook.com/IamChrisLang Chris Lang

    It’s PG 13. Every kid in the US wants a FB page when they turn that age.

    My friend’s parody video got 4,724 views in 2 months on a new channel without any followers or friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMwI8eALbk

    Top parodies got 380,000 views and more. Not a non event as I see indicators around the web.

    All I can say is wait and see, maybe you could get a personal quote from Calacanis?

    http://www.google.com/profiles/jasoncalacanis#buzz

    He is rather out spoken on this subject….

  • http://www.facebook.com/rossdunn Ross Dunn

    My impression is that people love to hate CEOs anyway so they may come out liking Zuckerberg less, but aside from a few leaving the FB user ranks it won’t have any long term impact.

  • http://www.salesrescueteam.com/social-media-measurement-tools/ TJ McCue

    I don’t think it will have any impact, Travis. Zero. I think most people won’t connect it to their FB experience or usage nor will they abandon the platform. FB is that “too big to fail” sort of phenom. I’m not a huge fan of it, nor am I a detractor, but I believe that if people were going to leave it they would have done so when privacy challenges started (and which still continue). If they don’t leave for such monumentally important things, I doubt that anything will happen due to some entertainment. That is my very limited and uneducated opinion.

    • http://www.MarketingProfessor.com Travis Campbell

      Interesting point TJ, sometimes I wonder what the average Facebook user understands about privacy on that platform. It would surprise me if the movie was much more than a non-event on the PR radar, however, as you can see in the comments here, some don’t share that viewpoint.

      • Nick

        I just saw the movie. I was so disgusted by the series of unethical decisions by the Facebook founder that I deleted my Facebook account. How ironic… the company that was founded by backstabbing a personal, genuine, friend, now wants us to make thousands of semi-friends online, and make billions of $$$ in the process. It is devaluation of friendship at its purest. So, I know that Facebook still has 500 million users and me leaving doesn’t make any significant difference for the company — but the effect of the movie is not zero. Facebook lost at least one user (me).

        • pr

          I absolutely agree with Nick…the movie has left me with such disgust for Mark Zuckerberg….

  • http://www.webticketstore.com Tickets For Sale

    Very gripping! Loved the dialogs, Jesse and Andrew’s performance. Although much as it terribly pains me, I have to say that JT also does a good job.

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