Facebook sponsored stories, is it a good thing?

Posted on Jan 26, 2011 in Facebook

Facebook has launched a new ad unit called “Sponsored Stories” that turns your Facebook activity (e.g., Places checkins, Likes, etc.) into advertisements.

How does it work? For example, let’s say when a user checks in to a Starbucks, and Starbucks has paid for Sponsored Stories, that check-in activity may appear as an advertisement to their friends. The ad is shown in the same location ads are normally displayed on the homepage (See below).

My immediate reaction was “What about privacy?” According to Facebook, all privacy settings will be honored within Sponsored Stories. Thus, users will only see Sponsored Stories by their friends who haven’t restricted them from viewing their shared content. However, I imagine that there are some users out there who want to share content with their friends, but may not want that content to be used as an advertisement.

So, the question I propose to you:  Is this a good thing? For users? For advertisers?

Blog #24 of 365.

  • http://timgoleman.com/ Tim Goleman

    Again, this is another one of Facebook’s “Isn’t it cool we can do this” rather then “should we do this and what are the implications.” I think they have the developers mentality of improving the site. They want to have the most advanced site, but don’t really see the social implications of the upgrades. They need to broaden their decision makers and bring in some people who specialize in marketing/privacy.

    You saw this on the interview Mark Z did with Dianne Sawyer. She asked “Can’t you just make it so the default sharing is just friends” and Mark said “well we have people who want to share with the public” I don’t think he got what she was saying about privacy.

    Just my two cents!

  • http://www.brainwads.net/drewhawkins Drew Hawkins

    I think it’s a good thing for advertisers. Takes the old “testimonial” approach to marketing and makes it more personal. I read something in AdAge not long ago that talked about celebrity endorsements aren’t as effective now. This new method is like having your friends endorse products. I think it has the potential to be more effective than a traditional testimonial. The catch is that it’ll most likely piss off a lot of users.

  • http://welcometojmart.com/ Josh Martin

    Great quote! I don’t think I had even thought about it that way, but that’s essentially what it is.