Fast Talk

No, I get tons of ads about marketing and investing. But then again I am not fat, am already married and I am only 27 so I don't have to worry about diet ads, single because you're ugly ads or pharmaceutical ads right?

Nope. Know why? Two reasons: 1) Facebook doesn't make ads noticeable enough, and 2) I never pay attention to ads anyway, be they of the pop-up or stationary variety.

Luckily, Faceboook, unlike MySpace, puts their ads to the side of the page, instead of EVERYWHERE. You can look at them or you can ignore them. They don't bother me and some of them are things that I would be interested in, because they are advertising concerts, writing expos, or some other thing. I haven't gotten the diet ads or the singles ads...

I wouldn't say they rub me the wrong way, but they do give me reason to ignore them all completely. Especially when I get an ad for education opportunities in a career that I have already. I understand their model, and I understand how it works and certainly marketing people love the idea of targeted marketing. The only problem is that it's really only useful for Facebook's wallet.

I don't even look at them. I don't go to social networking sites to learn about things I can buy. I learn from social networking sites, better ways to think, new people's names, etc.

Reading this article in which Rachel Beckman talks about how "the site decided I was a gal who needed to drop a few pounds. And it wasn't shy about its tactics... every time I logged in to my home page, Facebook's ads screamed at me with all the subtlety of a drill sergeant: "MUFFIN TOP" it's clear that Facebook's ads definitely don't sit well with everyone. They are pretty amazingly targeted if you pay attention (the ones I see clearly draw directly from my stated interests and education). I guess one way of avoiding this is not to put information up there that you don't want scrutinized...

Facebook has targeted ads???