Facebook could use some new friends.

     The social media phenomenon has been taking it on the chin lately – no pun intended. Following Facebook’s initial public stock offering, legal questions surfaced about how the offering was handled and polls suggested it’s not the place to be from an advertising standpoint.

     Facebook’s mega-hyped IPO began to flop shortly after it opened for business. While still acknowledging its potential, some analysts are cautioning whether it will be ever fully realized.

     On the heels of the flop came suspicions that IPO handler Morgan Stanley shared information on Facebook’s declining revenue projections with certain investors as the stock was going public. That may have prompted investors with that knowledge to avoid the stock while the uninformed were eagerly pursuing it.

     Words like “fraud” were bandied about as the legal scrutiny intensified.

     On a more down-to-earth scale, an AP-CNBC poll last month indicated Facebook users have a big distrust about the site’s ability to keep their personal information private. Only 13 percent trusted the site “completely” or “a lot” in that regard, while 59 percent were in the “only a little” or “not at all” category.

     Few of us will ever pursue Facebook stock, but that kind of survey response should hit home for any site user.

     Users’ hesitancy impacts Facebook’s ability to collect revenue from ads, not that many are clicking on them anyway. The survey further found that 83 percent “hardly ever” or “never” click on ads that appear on the site.

     Facebook has a button where users can “like” a particular topic. Lately, though, there seems to be a lot to “dislike” about Facebook itself.