Facebook introduces 'sponsored sites' to updates

Next time you mention a product or store on Facebook, your friends might see it not as a status update, but as an advert.

Facebook's new 'Sponsored Stories' initiative allows advertisers to take users' updates and "repurpose them as advertisements", reports tech news site Cnet.

The scheme began yesterday, and for Facebook users, there is no opt-out. If you 'like' an advertister's brand, they will be able to use your updates in their ads.

"Facebook's presumption is that a like or check-in implies explicit interest in a product or brand, and that an advertiser should be able to make money from the action," writes Clint Boulton on eweek.com.

They will also be able to post updates to your news feed when a friend of yours mentions the brand, or interacts with the brand's page or applications.

The idea is that companies have struggled to find ways to effectively use word-of-mouth in their marketing.
"When we make decisions about the products we want to buy, the places we want to go, we're basically looking for cues from our friends about what those things should be," says Facebook product manager Kent Schoen.

"The reality is when we make a decision, we're looking for information. And we want that information to come from people we trust."

Advertising website adage.com points out how this could backfire, however - "If a user checks into Starbucks with a "I hate this place, but it's the only coffee around" then that's exactly what the 'ad' turns out to be."

To counter this, advertisers can choose just to have 'likes' come up as adverts.

Coca-Cola, Levi's, Unicef and Amnesty Interational have already signed up to the service.


'Sponsored Stories' has already drawn comparisons to Facebook's ill-fated Beacon service, which let Facebook users know what their friends were buying from affiliated stores, often without their knowledge.