Sorry for the light posting lately, things have been extremely busy….

This week Facebook launched their 3 part ad program. The night it launched I spoke to a reporter from the Associated Press who wanted my thoughts on the new program. The article ran in many, many different places. Here are my thoughts from it:

Privacy concerns aside, many Facebook members may be reluctant to endorse an advertiser for fear of alienating friends who had bad experiences with the same company, said Chris Winfield, who runs 10e20, an online marketing specialist.

“They are relying a lot on their users to make this happen, and that’s going to be tricky,” Winfield said.

Then yesterday I spoke with Jonathan Richards from The Times for his article: Facebook to allow corporations to advertise via users’ referrals. Here are my thoughts:

Chris Winfield, the president of 10e20, a social media marketing company, said that advertisers would welcome the platform, but that Facebook risked alienating users if their profiles became too cluttered with marketing.

“Part of the reason Facebook has been so popular is because it’s been antiadvertising, anticlutter,” he said. “This risks friends falling out. If someone is constantly telling me how great Coke is and I’m a Pepsi fan, I’m going to lose that connection.”

Some users say that Facebook is right to help companies to serve more relevant adverts but others believe that the site’s reputation as a commercial-free zone is under threat.

Check out the AP article here on CNN.

Check out the Times article online here.

Check out lots of coverage from the blogosphere here via Techmeme.

Bookmark this post: