Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Shares Showing Strong Momentum Ahead of Earnings

Shares of Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) soared over 2%,while the braoder markets have slumped, ahead of the company’s earnings later today.

Social media network Facebook is set to report its third quarter results on Tuesday after the close of trading hours.

After the disappointing results from Internet search giant Google, analysts are not expecting any stunning surprises from Facebook, which has already showed that it is struggling with mobile advertising revenues.

Analysts, on average, are expecting earnings of 11 cents per share on revenue of $1.23 billion. Facebook, it may be recalled, did not give any guidance last time.

In the year-ago quarter Facebook was still a private company and reported a net income of $227 million and revenue of $954 million in the third quarter of 2011.

After all that the company has been saying in the intervening months between July and now, analysts and investors will be anxious to see what progress it has been making in terms of growing its mobile advertising base.

Very recently the social media network has started showing its `sponsored stories' feature on mobile devices. The challenge with mobile ads is that it has to be prominent to catch the eye of the user yet not to be too intrusive as to annoy them.

Facebook has been regularly introducing features with a view to getting more revenues from its users. One of the problems that it faces is that its user-base is not inclined to spend money to interact on the site.

Some of its add-on service includes Gifts, where users can buy stuff online from within Facebook and send gifts to friends and relatives.

Then there is Facebook Exchange, which lets advertisers target users in real-time, based on outside websites they visit. So if you visit a store's website, you might see ads from them on Facebook.

For a small fee, users can also promote their status updates to ensure that it stays on top of the newsfeeds for a long time.