A few weeks ago, Facebook launched a new ad unit called "Sponsored Stories", allowing advertisers to use page posts, actions within custom apps, checkins, and likes, into paid ads. Blurring the line between earned and paid media, the service will be a part of Facebook's self-serve advertising tool in the coming weeks.
The service is very similar to Facebook Beacon, a now-defunct, controversial ad system. As with Beacon, users are not being given the choice to opt-in to the service. The difference this time around is that users can adjust their privacy settings to keep the ad 'private' - appearing only to the people already able to see their posts.
Now, Starbucks can pay Facebook for this interaction:
And place it on the right side of your friends' pages along with other sponsored ads.
Facebook does face a challenge here, one that may hurt advertisers and irk users, alike. Will the system detect sentiment? Someone may checkin to a business, only because the store messed up their order, and still it will be used in an ad for a product or brand the user was not intending to endorse in a positive way. Will people's negative comments be filtered out? We may have some free comedy coming our way. Thank you, Facebook!
Images via AllThingsD