Facebook - A Marketing Network

Its official, Facebook announced today that it is now an advertising network. You can read all about the advertising changes that Facebook is now implementing here and here.

You can run but you can't hide. Sooner or later marketers and ad writers will track you down with spam, intrusive banner ads and unwanted advertisements.

Here is what Facebook rolled out today. Social Ads (ads targeted based on member profile data and spread virally), Beacon (a way for Facebook members to declare themselves fans of a brand on other sites and send those endorsements to their feeds), and Insight (marketing data that goes deep into social demographics and pyschographics which Facebook will provide to advertisers in an aggregated, anonymous way). These three things together make up Facebook Ads.

So, be careful what you post in your profile. You are giving Facebook marketing demographics.

Here is what Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO had to say about this marketing effort.

“We look at the people your ads are reaching and break it down by age, gender, interests, and a whole lot more we are adding soon.” Says none of this will be personally identifiable. “We will be able to track how much people are talking about your brand in public forums across Facebook. As you run ads on Facebook you will be able to see the exact mind share you are getting.”

“Social Actions + Content = Social Ads.” They spread your message virally through the social graph. These ads will appear both in people’s feeds and as a personalized banner ad.
“Let’s talk about targeting. With Facebook you will be able to select exactly the audience you want to reach, and we will only show your ads to them. We know exactly what gender someone is, what activities they are interested in. their location, country, city or town, interests, gender, work history, political views."

“Social distribution, now here is where it gets interesting. When somebody engages with your page, that is spread virally through the network. When someone says they are a fan of your brand, that becomes a trusted referral. It goes right to their Mini Feed. A strong trusted referral for your brand. You will be able to craft the types of social actions you want to spread across the social graph.”

“The next hundred years will be different for advertising, and it starts today. As marketers pushing our information out is no longer enough. We are announcing a new advertising system, not about broadcasting messages, about getting into the conversations between people."

"Messages spread virally. All you need to do is get your friends to engage with it and add it to their profiles. Gives example of how causes are spread across Facebook. Support Breast Cancer, more than 2 million members."

“Once every hundred years media changes. the last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next hundred years information won’t be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have. Advertising will change. You will need to get into these connections. "

“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising."

“We have already passed 50 million users, doubling once every 6 months. More than 25 million people are using Facebook every single day. Each person is viewing more than 40 pages a day, more than 65 billion page views a month.”

Facebook may seem like a great tool for social networking. And it is! But beware. You're every move is being tracked, analyzed and targeted. Today Facebook decided that they wanted to become an advertising network.