Facebook Testing Targeted "Sponsored Stories"

Online social networking groups have become extremely popular recently as we have heard on the news, web and of course word of mouth. Groups like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkIn provide places for people all over the nation and world to come together online and exchange thoughts and ideas. These groups allow users to segment themselves into groups based on their behaviors and interests. Users can join communities or more focused groups within each network.

Online social networking groups create a unique environment for advertisers today. Advertisers no longer have to guess about the interests of perspective consumers. Facebook will now offer advertisers an opportunity to capitalize on these finely segmented groups. Facebook will include a “Sponsored Story” on users’ home pages that will be an advertisement selected based on the unique preferences of the user. Information that is provided in users’ profiles will supply the information needed to target the advertisements. Links in the ads will then lead back to either the advertiser’s own Facebook profile or their branded website. Facebook has been one network to take chances and make changes to the network some backfiring like implementing RSS feeds into a user's profile so everytime there was a change, the RSS feeds were updated. However, I think this one might just stick.