Facebook: live and offline

LSE Polis chair Charlie Beckett described last night's lecture by Facebook's Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, as the second hottest ticket in town. Certainly the atmosphere in the room ahead of her arrival was worthy of the President himself. I wasn't sure what to expect from the 41-year-old Sandberg (and she made quite a point of her age) but was surprised to find her relaxed, warm and funny.

The statistics remain daunting. Thirty million people in the UK are on Facebook, spending an average of seven hours a month on the site. Facebook claims to be transforming relationships, with a half a billion signed up worldwide.

Sandberg weaved together heart-warming stories of how the company is helping communities, saving lives and giving people a voice; with humorous, often self-deprecating tales of her time at Facebook.

Facebook claims no credit for its role in the Middle East and North Africa, Sandberg saying that people in the region just used the same technology to bring freedom to their countries that others use to 'poke' each other.

On China, Sandberg said Facebook wanted to be active across the world so eventually that has to include that region. When pressed for further detail on Facebook's involvement in China, she said she wasn't ducking the issue but genuinely didn't have an answer yet, with a lot of questions still needing to being answered.

She dealt with the recent spat with Google by saying Facebook as a company stood behind the statement it made but believed that data should be used in ways that people are comfortable with.

It was only on privacy where she seemed to falter slightly. In her 50-minute presentation, she'd said Facebook is about people first and content second, with privacy of the utmost importance. When asked again during a rigorous Q&A, she asked everyone in the room who is on Facebook to raise their hand and then leave it up if they were worried about privacy. There were enough still in the air for her to admit there was 'a communications job' still to be done.

She said that all industries - including finance, commerce and healthcare - will be influenced by 'social design' and Facebook could be at the heart of it. She took swipes at the US education system, and quite often it seemed as though she was running for office rather than running the world's biggest social network.

When asked what new products were coming, she responded by asking what they (the audience) wanted. The answer, which got a hearty round of applause: a 'dislike' button.

Towards the end, an audience member asked Sandberg how much she is motivated to get up in the morning by the desire to 'kill Google'. She said that what motivates her is to build better products that enable to her stay in touch with her parents and her kids. It was that sort of night.

Brett Spencer is working on social media innovation projects for BBC English Regions.