Simply Everything

By Peter K. Lam

Behaviorial and Geographic Ad Targeting on Facebook

The latest post from the Computer World blog talks about older generations of users starting to dip into the world of social networking. An older demographic of users opens up new advertising opportunities. When Social networking first started, I didn’t think that it would really have much impact. I think my first taste of social networking was with Friendster which was a long time ago.  At the time the only thing Friendster was able to do was to connect users with other people much like a giant address book and then users can send messages to one another through this platform. It laid the foundation for social networking as we know it today.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites have evolved into a mass communication tool capable of reaching a very targeted demographic. Users on social networks create profiles that state their interests, education, and other personal information which they want to share with their friends. This information has become very useful in terms of online advertising and internet marketing because advertisers and marketers are now able to create behaviorial ad targeting and even geographical ad targeting.

When I’m on Facebook I always notice the ads that show up on my profile. They are always ads that cater to my interests, age group or geographical location. When you really think about it, it’s kind of creepy that social networking sites have evolved so much that it’s pretty much capable of analyzing a person from the data provided in the profile and spit out ads which have the highest probability of being clicked.

Whoever came up with this technology is brilliant even though it may seem a bit intrusive. Behaviorial and geographical ad targeting truly personalizes ads based off of user provided data so that users feel more inclined to click. I’m sure that those ads have a high response rate because it targets such a specific group. I know that I have clicked on a few ads while browsing on Facebook simply because the ads are really interesting and I wanted to find out more.

Behaviorial and geographical ad targeting are essential tools for any internet marketer. If you aren’t already using these tools, you should start. Such personalized ads really connects with users which will hopefully help generate more revenue in the future.

My employer, BowTie, Inc., is hiring a number of positions in the internet department. Here are links to the jobs if you are interested:

Chief eBusiness Officer
Senior Internet Designer
Senior Web Producer

All three positions are located in Irvine, CA. Feel free to apply for these positions or forward this information to friends who may be interested.

By Peter K. Lam

Facebook and FriendFeed

News broke out today that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed although details have been sketchy at best as to the terms of the acquisition. FriendFeed operates very much like the wildly popular Twitter. With Facebook’s acquisition of FriendFeed, Twitter’s reign over the microblogosphere may no longer be as dominant as before.

Twitter became popular so rapidly that it’s hard to remember what the internet was like when it wasn’t around. It took the social networking circles by storm and has become the communication tool of choice for celebrities, athletes and even media personalities. With Facebook’s new business venture, it’s highly possible that Twitter may not remain the king for much longer.

Facebook remains one powerful force of social media overthrowing MySpace in terms of user preference. Facebook has only continue to grow and expand, gaining more members and popularity than ever before. The minds behind Facebook have all the necessary tools to mold FriendFeed into Twitter’s formiddable rival.

This war is definitely going to be fun to watch. I simply loathe Twitter so watching them go down will be absolute joy! If Facebook is able to utilize the same principles of Twitter and maybe add in a few cool unique features, it will be only a matter of time before Twitter becomes a distant memory. Facebook did it to MySpace now it’s time to do it to Twitter!