Gerzof Richard talks about Facebook IPO

Adjunct faculty member David Gerzof Richard, who teaches Emerson’s popular social media marketing course, shared his take on Facebook’s stock market debut as a publicly traded company with the Boston Globe this weekend.

Local media regularly tap Gerzof Richard for his social media expertise.

“Facebook now carries a stock market value of $105 billion, greater than that of restaurant giant McDonald’s Corporation,” wrote Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray. “But McDonald’s generated $27 billion in revenue last year, and $5.5 billion in net income. Despite its 900 million users worldwide, Facebook generated just $3.7 billion in revenue — mostly from advertising presented to its online users — last year, and $668 million in net income.”

“We’ll probably see a more advertising-friendly Facebook post-IPO,” Gerzof Richard told the Globe, because there will now be more pressure on Facebook to generate more income per user.

Gerzof Richard has also become a regular social media expert on WFXT-TV. In May, he talked about the importance of privacy settings on Facebook and about good Twitter accounts to follow.