As part of the continued expansion of Core Strategic Group, the company’s FSB Public Affairs has hired Crystal Patterson, former head of global civic partnerships at Facebook. FSB, which is under the umbrella of Core Strategic, started as a West Coast shop but is now focused on growing its DC office.
Patterson’s time with Facebook extends back to a period when many lawmakers didn’t even have pages and some shunned it for fear of not being taken seriously in Washington.
“When I joined in 2014, it was something that people looked at as a silly, fun diversion as opposed to a serious communications tool,” she recalled to C&E.
Things have changed. “Digital evolved through my career and has gone from being an afterthought, or a novelty to being a central part to how campaigns [and] businesses communicate,” Patterson said.
How central Facebook will be to campaign strategy in 2022 remains to be seen. Patterson said changes are sure to come to the platform as her former employer responds to challenges. As a result, consultants and even campaign staffers should get their ducks in a row now.
“They’ve got to get their ad authorization set up now so they don’t run into problems getting approvals,” she said.
Her best-practices advice also includes having more than one person set up on a Business Manager account, in case the solo manager gets hacked, which is not an unlikely scenario.
“It would shock you how many people don’t have two-factor identification on their passwords and only have a single manager,” said Patterson. “There’s this belief that it wouldn’t happen to you. We’re all at risk.”
