FW: Breaking News: Facebook to Turn Users Into Endorsers

Facebook to Turn Users Into Endorsers

By SAUL HANSELL <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saul_hansell/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

Published: November 6, 2007

Facebook <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org> wants to turn every member into a spokesman for its advertisers. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the superhot social network, today announced what the company calls "social ads."

The ads expand what has been one of the most powerful features of Facebook, the news feed, where members see a list of what their friends are doing - photos from their parties, new friends, favorite bands and so on.

Facebook now will give advertisers the ability to create their own profile pages on its system that will let users identify themselves as fans of a product. Each user's news feed will contain items like "Bobby Smith is now a fan of Toyota Prius."

News feeds can be linked to outside Web sites as well, so users can tell friends about what they rented at Blockbuster <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/blockbuster_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org> or are auctioning on eBay <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/ebay_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org> .

Facebook will offer all of those features to advertisers free. What it will charge for, however, is appending an advertisement to these news items. Toyota <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/toyota_motor_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org> could buy the right to put a photo and a short message under every news-feed post that links to the Prius.

In addition, Friends of Bobby, to continue this example, will see banner ads for Toyota throughout Facebook's site. At the top of each of these ads will be a photo of Bobby and the fact that he likes the Prius.

"Nothing influences a person more than the recommendation of a trusted friend," said Mr. Zuckerberg.

In addition, Facebook will allow advertisers to tap into the vast stores of data that its users provide. They can display ads limited to people with certain interests, location, political views, favorite media, education and relationship status.

Mr. Zuckerberg did not discuss the prices for these advertisements. But he did say that they would be enabled tonight. The company announced an initial roster of advertisers including Coca-Cola <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/coca_cola_company/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Blockbuster, Verizon <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/verizon_communications_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Travelocity and Condé Nast.

James W. Keyes , the chief executive of Blockbuster, said his company wanted to take part in a low-key way.

"There is a fine line we walk," he said. "We debated long and hard about whether to put the Blockbuster logo on the Facebook site. We are not trying to induce a particular behavior. If users accept us as a place to share ideas with their friends about their favorite movies, over time that will stimulate purchase behavior. "

Mr. Zuckerberg said Facebook had had 50 million users in the last month. And 25 million users visit Facebook each day. The company displays 65 billion pages on which advertisements can be displayed each month.