The Zuckerberg tour continues: Next stop -- the 'Today Show'
Under pressure from investors and the public, Facebook's CEO makes the media rounds to make sure Facebook's messages are heard.
Clearly, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided he's ready for his close up.
After months of silence from Zuckerberg, the hacker-turned CEO is basking in the limelight. He's been doing public appearance after public appearance recently, with the latest -- an interview with Matt Lauer -- airing Thursday on the "Today Show."
Zuck and crew didn't make a peep as Facebook recoiled from a bungled IPO. And, now, with fallen stock and lawsuits dragging down the company's image, the social network is working hard to make sure the public hears its message loud and clear: Everything at Facebook is a-OK. No, really.
Besides his taped Today interview (which promises hard-hitting questions about Zuckerberg's wardrobe), Zuckerberg has been making the rounds since the tech startup-focused TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco last month.
At TechCrunch, his first public appearance since the IPO, Zuckerberg wow'd everyone with how cool and calm he seemed compared with past interviews (and given that, at the time, Facebook's stock was down nearly 50 percent from its opening day price).
He stuck to his talking points: yes, the IPO was a bummer, but we are figuring out ways to make money off mobile.
The appearance seemed to do the trick -- the stock rose for a bit before a Barron's articlesuggested Facebook's stock, which had been hovering in the low 20s, should trade at $15.
But Facebook trudged on with a media blitz and stuck to its messaging.
This week, Zuckerberg made not one but three public appearances overseas. He set off for Russia, meeting with the country's prime minister and chatting with a late-night TV host. Today, he did a talk for students at Moscow State University.
And while Zuck's away, his second in command, COO Sheryl Sandberg, is toeing the line as well. She made two public appearances this week: a taped CNBC interview talking about how Facebook plans to make money, and at an advertising conference in New York to talk about the effectiveness of Facebook ads.
It seems to be working. The stock closed at $22.27 today, up from its all-time low of $17.55. We'll see how far they'll they'll take the blitz, and if it still works after Facebook's third-quarter earnings are released in a few weeks.