Welcome to Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg! Now Get to Work.
by Kara Swisher
Posted on March 24, 2008 at 2:44 AM PT
Today is the first day of work at Facebook for ex-Google executive Sheryl Sandberg, who will arrive at the social-networking company’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ to take up the job of COO.
At Google (GOOG), Sandberg was the vice president, Global Online Sales and Operations, a major post in which she ran a large swath of the search giant’s ad operations.
Sandberg was responsible for online sales of Google’s ad and publishing products, bringing experience Facebook sorely needs. Previously, she was also the chief of staff at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration.
At Facebook, Sandberg will oversee a large part of the company, including all sales, human resources, marketing and communications, and business development.
Her job description essentially makes her No. 2 to Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, although it’s not characterized that way by him or the company.
But BoomTown is declaring it so, and plans to spend the first week of Sandberg’s tenure making suggestions on what she should get cracking on now.
No surprise, we have a million of them, well beyond our longtime complaint that third-party widgets on the site are juvenile (news flash–they still are!).
And even though our concerns are not all in Sandberg’s purview, we’re directing our suggestions her way, because, well, just because! (In actuality, the CFO and the technology and product divisions will report directly to Zuckerberg.)
Nonetheless, we want some action, including everything from improving the dreadful mail on Facebook, to giving users more ability to sort friends, to allowing data portability to figuring out a way to jack up Facebook’s ad business in a truly significant way.
Yes, that.
Today, though, we’ll give Sandberg time to move in to her office and unpack her boxes, and try to figure out where to eat now that the glories of the Google cafeteria are no longer available to her (that’s right, no more organic soy lattes or hand-fed, massaged-daily roast chicken for you!).
But tomorrow, as Scarlett O’Hara said, is another day.
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.
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Comments
She is not in the Product management org branch, she is in revenue operations. All of your suggestions are related to product development.
However, an exec of her pedigree is just what Facebook needs to compete with Google in the money creating mode. And, who knows more than she, an insider of insiders.
Posted by alan wilensky at March 24th, 2008 at 7:13 amOh, I see. She is supposed to hit-up her former colleagues at Google for cash now. Good luck to her on that.
Here is an idea for Facebook and the like: Do something useful, that people will pay for rather than do without.
That doesn’t mean you have to charge users for it, just that you could. Advertisers are much more interested in such a product.
Most Web x.0 fails that test by a country mile. Hence, we won’t have to be hearing about it much longer.
Posted by Mac Beach at March 24th, 2008 at 3:09 pmAlan:
I know! I said so! But I need someone to complain to!
Posted by Kara Swisher at March 25th, 2008 at 12:55 amMac:
I could not have said it better myself. Well, maybe I could, but thanks for saying it!
Posted by Kara Swisher at March 25th, 2008 at 12:56 amhmm. guessing there are probably several equal-but-different “#2″’s over at FB, and that Sheryl might be one of them… but probably also the case that Adam D’Angelo and Matt Cohler and Dustin Moskowitz are in the same category. Not sure about Gideon Yu & other folks, but anyway, i’m just sayin’…
Posted by dave mcclure at March 27th, 2008 at 10:44 pm