Viral
Yeah, I set up a Facebook page, and had a bit of fun with it, but it’s pretty boring, now, so I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on it, building “networks” – i.e., joining groups – or adding applications – i.e., on-line toys and games.

It was probably in the cards before Microsoft’s buy-in, but Facebook is expanding its advertising capabilities. You’ve heard of “viral” marketing, the kind of advertising that spreads by word of mouth without necessarily acknowledging that an ad. The Carlton beer “big” ad was one, and even that Rube Goldberg car ad, which I think was Honda’s. More applicable to Facebook’s move, however, is the still largely underground practice of having people attend trendy nightspots and events who then take every opportunity to chat up strangers with how much they like product x. Facebook, similarly, will “allow” users to identify as fans of a product. Advertisers will pay to create groups, and users will join them. Advertisers can pay more and have actual advertising content appear on users’ pages.

This is all very good for Facebook, whose revenues – and profits – are sure to increase, perhaps even dramatically. There are plenty of people out there who really are fans of particular products, and they’re pretty certain to sign on to display their preferences on Facebook. It increases their own profile, after all, and these social networking sites are all about the friends list. But users won’t benefit, as the program’s structured presently, in any monetary sense, that is, they won’t get paid for advertising products on “their” pages. Fair enough, I suppose. The pages really belong to Facebook, not the users. But Google’s Adsense program, where Google puts ads on your blog or website, regardless of whether you’re paying for the site or not, pays for “hits” and pays more if those hits translate into sales. This seems a bit more fair to me, but then I’m not likely to sign up as a fan (or tool) or anyone’s anytime soon.