Markets

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Have Nothing to Fear From The Social Network

By Catharine Taylor

Updated on: September 27, 2010 / 9:09 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Not that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shouldn't have launched a huge PR campaign to counter the negative portrayal of him in the upcoming movie The Social Network, but the truth is that the film -- written by Aaron Sorkin and purportedly portraying him as an evil genius -- will be nothing more than a flesh wound. And certainly not one that leaves a permanent scar.

The central reason is that people can't get enough of their Facebook; a movie portraying its founder as something less than a picture of moral rectitude isn't going to dissuade them from conferring "Facebook friend" status on an old crush from high school or posting that latest status update. If Facebook could continue its world-domination juggernaut through the privacy imbroglio of several months ago -- which it did, soon after hitting the 500 million member mark -- then it's certainly not going to be affected by a movie.

Another is that, in case you haven't noticed, we Americans have notoriously short attention spans. While Facebook's breadth now expands far outside our country's borders, the big base of U.S. Facebook users will have forgotten about the movie by the time of the mid-term elections. If it matters, it won't matter for long.

But, obviously, Zuckerberg and his advisors, thought it best not to ignore The Social Network. Thus the PR offensive that included a profile of Zuckerberg in The New Yorker and a $100 million donation by Zuckerberg to the troubled Newark, NJ school system, with an announcement on Oprah no less. (I know the party line is that the timing of the donation was a coincidence and that Zuckerberg had intended for the donation to be anonymous. Sorry, but I'm not entirely buying it.)

The PR ploy is all about continuing to lure advertisers, and the hopes of luring investors to a Facebook IPO. But maybe not for the reasons you think. While the going theory may be that the movie may make advertisers and investors skittish about in investing in the company, the rationale for the PR blitz may well be something more nuanced. Think of it as a test trying to determine how, well, super-smart Zuckerberg can be in the middle of a firestorm -- no one with a stake in how Facebook performs would like to see him take The Social Network lying down. If the past week is any guide he passed the test with flying colors.