Wow! GOOG's Comms Chief Joins Facebook
Elliot Schrage, head of Google's corporate communications team, has left the building. He has joined Facebook. This is one of the most significant departures from Google even though there has been a long string of them. I say that because if the minister of propaganda doesn't believe the message then something must be going wrong inside Google [BTW my Goebbels reference is completely inappropriate.]
I was always impressed by Elliot Schrage and by Google's recognition that it needed a person of his stature, to deal with big issues-- almost as if GOOG saw the need to create a foreign diplomatic corps.[Please see: November 2005 - Google hires squeaky clean human rights/ corporate responsibility lawyer as PR chief]
Here is Thomas Claburn reporting from Information Week [My bold highlight.]:
Another Google Executive Joins Facebook - Yahoo! News
Elliot Schrage: There's a communications strategy where the communications people just answer the phone and dial up and read from a script," said Schrage. "And that just can't work in an environment where the messaging is so decentralized.
There's been some incorrect information about the sort of people that we're hiring, suggesting that we don't want to hire PR professionals. But that's of course not the case. But what it does say is we need people to be as effective on strategic development, on messaging and clarity as on tactical execution.
It seems Mr Schrage is referring to my post about GOOG preferring not to hire PR experts but to get them fresh from school - but it also seems as if that's part of the problem he is referirng to?! [Please see: GOOG Doubling its PR Crew--PR and Press Needn't Apply]
