Move Fast. Break Things.

Lessons From Facebook’s Culture for Professional Service Marketing Programs

I was reading an article in FORTUNE the other day called “Inside Facebook – How Does the Social Media Giant Really Work?” (March 19, 2012) when I came across a line that stopped me cold.

“Move Fast. Break Things”

The reference was to posters plastered all over the Facebook campus that serves to motivate the staff and articulate the Facebook culture. They must be doing something right, because they bring new ideas and products to the market at warp speed and in the process, are re-inventing and redefining the web.

For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine walking into an accounting, consulting or law firm and seeing a poster like this. I’ve talked to thousands of partners and professional services firm marketers during my career, and if there was indeed a Facebook-like poster plastered around the office, the slogan articulating the firm’s marketing/new business culture might very well be “Move Slow. Resist Change.” 

I’m not suggesting that a CPA, consulting or law firm develop and execute marketing strategies and tactics at warp speed with a “damn the torpedoes / full speed ahead” approach. What I am suggesting is that new thinking about websites, new marketing approaches like inbound and content marketing, and new marketing technologies like HubSpot will inevitably push firms to move faster and more aggressively.

Professional services firm develop most of their new business from personal relationships, and that’s not going to change. But what does need to change, and where moving fast and breaking things may be appropriate, is the firm’s web and internet strategies.

Professional services firms that “get Web 2.0” today – and that’s still a minority of all firms - are going to realize significant competitive advantages tomorrow. They’ll be getting found first on line, converting site visitors to leads, automating the lead nurturing process, paying attention to metrics, doing creative things with personal branding, and a lot more.

And while many CPA, consulting and law firms are strongly resisting adding Facebook into their marketing mix, maybe adding a small bit of Facebook’s culture isn’t a bad thing.

Now go out and break some things!