In a 2008 60 Minutes interview (link above) with Facebook owner Mark Zuckerburg, he responds to the use of Beacon on Facebook: "When you put that information in your profile...that you like a scarf...we might show that information to your friends, as an add." This sparked controversy because users felt their privacy was highly violated. Zuckerburg, was forced to put more privacy settings on the program, Beacon. Ads are still targeted towards users interests, but not as intrusively. Zuckerburg believes that these sorts of ads are a new, better way of targeting users, rather than posting banner ads. People are more likely to view ads that are catered to their interests than any random ad at the top of a page.
Zuckerburg remains hopeful. Facebook must use ads to make a profit while keeping the site free for users. These "special interest" ads seem to be the lesser of the evil.There may be a better way to use ads on social media sites, but I have not yet come across it. Advertisements are always a bother when they consume the pages of every website we see. We have almost become blind to many of these advertisements. I think it is a good advertising strategy to use user targeted ads, but is it a good strategy for Facebook?
2 comments:
I remember when ads use to irritate me. But advertisers have strengthened their skills by advertising products that I would be interested in. Now, I see ads that I might find interesting, and this new strategy has improved and now, ads don't seem to bother me anymore. I would have to say that this is a good strategy for facebook as well as other social networking sites. If I'm going to be bombarded with ads, it might as well be with products that I would find interesting.
These ads are targeted very well. In part because we give them all of our information. We have done half the research for these companies/products. This is a god reminder that we all need to watch what content we publish on the web.
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