Facebook unveil Facebook Ads

Popular social media website Facebook have announced the launch of Facebook Ads, an ad system for businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want. Facebook Ads will enable users to learn about new businesses, brands and products through the trusted referrals of their friends.

“Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg . “For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

Advertising messages will gain distribution through what Facebook has termed the “social graph,” the network of real connections through which people communicate and share information. When people engage with a business’ Facebook Page, that action will spread information about that business through the social graph.

Users can become a fan of a business and can share information about that business with their friends and act as a trusted referral. Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page by adding reviews, writing on that business’ Wall, uploading photos and in any other ways that a business may want to enable. These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed, Facebook’s popular products that allow users to share information more efficiently with their friends.

The advertising system works by allowing businesses to build their own pages on facebook. Starting with a blank canvas, the business can then add all the information and content they want, including photos, videos, music and Facebook Platform applications. Outside developers have created a range of applications to enhance Facebook Pages, such as booking reservations or providing reviews of restaurant pages, buying tickets on a movie page or creating a custom t-shirt. Companies launching applications for Pages include Fandango, iLike, Musictoday LLC, OpenTable, SeamlessWeb, Zagat Survey LLC and Zazzle.

Facebook's Zuckerberg goes on to say, “It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions to build a new kind of ad system.”

Facebook is a hugely popular and successful social utility with more than 52 million active users. There is no doubt that by opening up their membership through this new advertising platform, Facebook have changed the way that many businesses will view customer interaction in the future. The challenge for travel businesses is to learn how to harness and maximise this powerful new advertising medium.