By: Courtney Rose
“It’s not every day you can check-in on Facebook at Facebook.”
Once upon a time, on a rainy day, three Olives made their way to the Facebook and Instagram HQ in Menlo Park, California. They had a meeting at Facebook, toured the campus and ate some treats at the Sweet Shop all while giggling sweet happiness in the land of hashtags, check-ins, photo-ops, status updates, flattering filters and tagged photos.
Yes friends, true story, and let me tell you, it is all it is cracked up to be and MORE!
No, we didn’t see Cheryl Sandburg or Mark Zuckerberg, but we were at the central location of a place that is responsible for connecting over 1 billion of us together, and that’s pretty cool in itself. On our Olive field trip, we were able to socialize with some of the Facebook team members, ask some challenging questions, get insights on current social media matters and explore their world for a day.
We had a lot of fun strolling around the campus and below are just a FEW highlights, cool facts and takeaways from our day at the Social Media Capital.
- Mark Zuckerberg and the executives still work at Facebook—It’s not uncommon for employees to see their leaders still walking around campus. In fact, Zuckerberg used to have his meetings in a room with full-length windows so people could see him in meetings while they were just walking about.
- Inspiration board—One of the highlights for me at #FBHeadquarters was the inspiration board. Facebook employees design posters with inspirational quotes spoken by their company’s leaders or other sayings that connect with what’s going on in the world. One of my personal favorites was, “Let’s kick the shit out of option B,” which was what a friend shared with Cheryl Sandburg when her husband had passed away.
- Facebook Foxes—Facebook is designated a Certified Wildlife Habitat. They used to have foxes running around the campus!
- Social ad campaigns are so important. And there’s no right answer, PERIOD.—In today’s social media game, businesses have to pay to play. Ads are a vital part to a social media campaign, and every business is different—so there’s no right answer on what’s best. Do you want to increase your engagement, gain more followers, or something else? It’s important to flush out your goals and expectations to determine which ads are the best to run.
- The accommodations are UNREAL—They have a barber shop, a spa, an arcade, and a gym. They serve their employees breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have tons of snacks, and they even have Facebook umbrellas when it rains (which came in handy that day) and MORE!
Even though I’m not a social media guru, taking a trip to Facebook was a dream come true. As a PR professional, social media is key in our industry and it’s critical that we understand how powerful it is. It has become a reliable source for us—to get news, pitch editors and learn about trends in our or our clients’ industries.
The most successful PR campaigns always have a strong social media component. Social media is what carries a viral media story, and what PR pro doesn’t want that?!