Advertising in Conversations

Facebook announced today a brilliant new advertising system designed to unlock the trust factor of friendly recommendations to promote products and services. This is the new model discussed here before where we move from an Internet of Search to an Internet of "Me." Facebook CEO Zuckerberg gave a speech to about 200 advertising industry executives today in New York. He said you have to get your message out to the conversations, not just push them to people. This makes sense because every marketer knows the more targeted the audience, the more likely they will respond to your offer. There is another dimension to this model that makes it extremely powerful - the ability to tap into the dynamic nature of the social network itself. This is accomplished by attaching an advertising message to viral alerts generated by users doing everyday "facebooking." This includes writing reviews, shopping online, selling with auctions and the like. We have more than just a game of Web 1.0 "eyeballs." Facebook (and Microsoft) want "qualified" eyeballs with the pocketbooks ready to buy what their social graph says they should be buying. Nothing sells better than the recommendation of a friend. Nick O'Neill has some good information on what Facebook Ads offer to advertisers. The "Landmark" partners include an impressive list of top tier consumer companies. Facebook will try to beat Google at its own game. But don't count Google out yet, there's much more on the way. Oh, and I've finally added the word Facebook to my dictionary so the spell-checker will stop flagging it. We're in for long haul now.