????為了吸引潛在投資者，Facebook首席運營官雪莉?桑德伯格在該公司的首次公開募股路演視頻中發表了振聾發聵的演說詞：“在美國，Facebook網站上的每一天都像是收視率最高的電視節目——《美國偶像》（American Idol）的總決賽，而且，我們的用戶數量還是它的兩倍。”這種自夸極具沖擊力。但事實證明，桑德伯格的此番講話還是相當保守的。在美國和加拿大每天有1.88億用戶登錄使用Facebook，這個數字實際上相當于《美國偶像》總決賽收視率的四到五倍，確實不是吹牛皮。

????然而，桑德伯格的說法也凸顯了一個問題。據業內人士估計，美國偶像的賽季壓軸帶來了超過4,000萬美元的廣告收入。而去年，拿Facebook的典型一天來說，僅僅收入560萬美元。因此，保守計算，在福克斯（Fox）電視臺舉辦的這檔節目中，每一雙盯著參賽者們在舞臺上假意哭泣的眼球所帶來的利潤超過Facebook用戶在網站上點擊查看親戚朋友是否安好而替該公司所帶來盈利的至少30倍。Facebook不只是落后于電視。它高達9億的用戶每人每年只為公司帶來略高于4美元的收入。比較而言，谷歌（Google）的用戶每人每年為公司創造的毛利至少超過它的7倍。也就是說，Facebook的高額利潤只是來自于它的巨大規模，而并不意味著它是一家特別高效的廣告媒體。

????當Facebook力圖證明它有能力成為一家市值突破1,000億美元并能維持這一高位的公司時，它實際上面臨著巨大的挑戰。首先，這家社交網絡服務公司必須找到一種方式提高其廣告業務的增長速度。該公司最新財季的廣告收入增速下滑到45%，幾乎只有去年同期的一半。同時，公司現在還面臨用戶從網站快速轉向移動設備的不利局面，在移動領域它的商業化還處在起步階段。總之 對于它所做出的承諾，對于它擁有的徹底改變各種行業的潛力，Facebook必須向廣告客戶和投資者們證明它有能力提供與其擁有的龐大社交網絡服務相匹配的全球性廣告業務。目前，Facebook網絡社交平臺已經成為約占全球七分之一人口日常生活的一部分。

????可以肯定的是，Facebook是一個卓越的社交樞紐，而它作為廣告媒體沒那么光彩奪目的原因在于設計。創始人扎克伯格總是不遺余力地打造Facebook這個平臺，有時甚至不惜犧牲公司的廣告業務。但是現在Facebook上市在即，以后他的團隊必須向投資者提交令人滿意的財務報表，就這一點而言他們會面臨巨大壓力。因此，他應該著眼于以下三個方面：

第一：廣告業務

????Facebook廣告已經成為各種在線陳列廣告攻勢的籌碼，但公司必須向這些廣告客戶們證明其廣告位會提供豐厚的回報，這樣才能讓其廣告業務由客戶的嘗試性購買轉變為一大批企業廣告業務策略的基石。

????去年，Facebook的廣告業務推廣策略已經發生了變化。現在公司不僅僅是派銷售人員帶著廣告清單出去兜售，而是開始聘請懷揣MBA學歷并且在業內擁有豐富經驗、受廣告商青睞的人士擔任公司的“公關經理”。這些人對他們的客戶不叫“廣告客戶”，而是稱作“合作伙伴”。他們建議大型公司，比如寶潔（Procter & Gamble），不要只盯著社交網站上的消費者“喜好”，而是要多留意消費者們在Facebook上說的話、做的事哪些與自己的品牌相關，也就是說消費者與品牌之間發生的故事。Facebook相信，如果各大品牌能夠在粉絲頁面和應用上發起這樣的討論，寶潔這樣的公司就會順理成章地購買更多的廣告服務。

????In Facebook's video IPO roadshow, Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, delivers a powerful line intended to impress potential investors: "In the United States, every day on Facebook is like the season-finale of American Idol -- the most popular show on television -- times two." It's an impactful boast, but as it turns out, Sandberg is playing it pretty safe. Every day, 188 million people log into Facebook in the U.S. and Canada. That's actually four to five times the number who tuned in to the season finale of American Idol. Wow, indeed.

????And yet, Sandberg's boast also highlights a problem. American Idol's season finale brought in more than $40 million in advertising, according to industry estimates. On a typical day last year, Facebook (FB) took in just $5.6 million or so in the U.S. So conservatively, each set of eyeballs trained on the mewling of contestants on Fox is worth at least 30 times more than those checking in with friends and family on Facebook. And it's not just television that Facebook lags behind. Every one of its 900 million users generates a little more than $4 in revenue for Facebook in a year. By comparison, Google (GOOG) grosses at least 7 times more from each one of its users. In other words, Facebook makes gobs of money because of its massive reach, not because it is a particularly effective advertising medium.

????As Facebook seeks to justify and sustain a mammoth valuation that seems certain to top $100 billion, it faces enormous challenges. First and foremost, the social networking service must find a way to accelerate the growth of its advertising business, which slowed to 45% in the most recent quarter from nearly twice that rate the year before. And it must do so in the face of headwinds from the rapid shift of users from the Web to mobile devices, where Facebook's monetization efforts are still nascent. In short, for all its promise and its potential to revolutionize entire industries, Facebook must prove to advertisers and investors that it can build a global ad business to match the power of a social networking product that has become a habit for nearly one of every seven people on the planet.

????To be sure, the fact that Facebook's advertising prowess lags behind its preeminence as a social hub is by design. Zuckerberg has always made the Facebook product his top priority, sometimes at the expense of the company's ad business. But now that Facebook will be a public company, his team will be under enormous pressure to deliver financial results that keep investors happy. Here are three things he should focus on to achieve that.

No. 1 Advertising

????Facebook ads have become table stakes for any online display advertising campaign, but as these ads move from experimental purchases to the cornerstone of many advertising strategies, Facebook must show to advertisers that these spots deliver significant returns.

????In the past year, Facebook's approach to advertising has changed. Now, rather than simply sending salespeople out to sell its ad inventory, Facebook has begun to hire MBA-carrying "relationship managers" with experience in the industries from which the advertisers hale. These folks call their clients "partners" instead of "advertisers" and encourage large bands like Procter & Gamble (PG) to stop chasing "Likes" and, instead, look at what people are actually saying and doing on Facebook that relates to them -- engagement. Facebook believes that if brands can jumpstart these conversations on fan pages and within apps they'll naturally buy more ads.