Want to Advertise to your Friends on Facebook?

January 20 2010, 8:24am

Tired of the ads you see on social networking sites? If Microsoft gets its way, soon you’ll be able to make your own ads which may be seen by all your friends. Microsoft has filed a patent for a new ad method which would let them supplement original ads with user reviews, both good and bad. Subsequent visitors to the site would be shown reviews based on relevance, for example, if the reviewer is the visitor’s friend. Facebook already incorporates that idea by allowing users to select that they “like” an ad. That information is then used to determine what other ads are shown to that same user. However, Microsoft will give users even more of a voice by allowing them the freedom to write detailed negative reviews if they choose to. This follows the spirit of social networking sites which are all about communication. It will also help raise the low engagement level in ads on these sites. While social networking sites like Facebook are growing rapidly, many find it difficult to attract advertisers because of the difficulty in measuring social media campaigns. Microsoft’s new method is designed to allow advertisers to measure audience engagement and campaign effectiveness. “The history of users’ interactions with the ads is used to determine a user engagement score. A higher score can indicate a higher likelihood that the user will respond to the ad or find it useful,” says the patent.