Zuckerberg
will sit across from ABC News' Diane Sawyer in his most high-profile
interview since 2008, when
Sawyer interviewed him on 60 Minutes.
Facebook's well-known CEO doesn't give many public interviews, and for
good reason: he has melted
under the lights before, most prominently at this year's D8
Conference. When Zuckerberg agrees to an exclusive, national TV
interview, you know that he has something important to say.
What message does Zuckerberg want to convey to the American public? To
the entire world?
Changing the NarrativeWe fully expect Mark Zuckerberg to use his national stage appearance to
announce that the world's largest social network has
over 500 million users. It is one of the most significant
milestones in the company's history, plus the timing fits.
The national stage gives the young CEO the opportunity to rewrite the
Facebook story -- one currently being written by this
year's privacy fiasco, the upcoming Facebook
movie and Zuckerberg's poor performance at D8. While the social
network continues to grow wildly, the narrative of Facebook changing the
world has veered off course.
Bringing Sawyer to Facebook headquarters does several things. First, it
humanizes Facebook by showing off a determined, smart, happy team.
Second, it provides Zuckerberg a chance to cast himself in a positive
light and make himself into a likable character once again. Finally,
it's a chance for Zuckerberg to get his message out direct to the
people, past the media and the blogosphere.
Of course, there are risks: Sawyer is an experienced interviewer, and we
doubt she will let Zuckerberg off the hook on the privacy issues that have plagued the
company. One bad soundbyte could lead to a wave of bad press and kill
the message. However, Zuckerberg's familiarity with Sawyer (she was the
one who interviewed him on 60 Minutes) mitigates some of that
risk. Still, he got the message across in his 60 Minutes
interview, and that was two years ago.
While Zuckerberg's big announcement is likely to be the half billion
user milestone, the focus of his message is more likely to be on the
utility and connectivity of Facebook, and the positive world-changing
impact it has had on our society. If he's smart, he'll bring out
stories of how Facebook has reconnected families and friends, as well as
talk about the connected future that he envisions.
That positive message is what Facebook's CEO will try to deliver. If he
can avoid major snafus, he'll succeed in repairing at least some of the
damage that's been inflicted by the company's previous misstep