For the life of me I am trying to figure out why companies out there are still attempting to advertise in the traditional sense of the word on Facebook. Personally, I can’t say that I have ever bother to look up Jennifer Aniston’s Acai Berry Weight Loss Diet, or stopped what I was doing in order to dress my very own Zwinky Doll. Clearly, the message that these advertisers are trying to send got to me, and I am sure thousands of other fellow facebook friends, however, the point is that I, much like the 99.96% of facebook users**, don’t ever actually click on the link. According to an online youth survey conducted by Forrester 86% of people use Facebook to see what their friends are up to. (And about 65% should be considered Facebook creepers (People who look up profiles of people they don’t kno)w…who has time for this?)
But I digress, it should seem pretty clear that no one is on Facebook in order to look at banner ads created by clever advertisers. Taking into account people are primarily on Facebook to write message and interact with their friends, Facebook has introduced a new way for advertisers to reach a very lucrative young audience by using something called Engagement Ads. Engagement Ads come in three forms: Comment Style Ads (allows users to post their comments, similar to wall posting), Virtual Gifts Ads (people can share virtual items with friends) and Fan Style Ads (joining a fan page for something you are particularly passionate about). Now of the three, I can see the Fan Style Ads working pretty well. I have seen a few of my Facebook friends who have subscribed to this type of advertising, and I must admit that I am often curious about some of the products that have piqued their interest. However, I can’t say that I have ever personally followed up on their fan page. From an advertiser’s perspective, however, I would see this as a great way in which to offer up new updates and information about products to a dedicated audience. Let’s take for example RIM (Research in Motion) and their Blackberry products. While I am not aware if RIM has a fan page, (I would imagine it does) it would make sense to me that when its time to release a new product (say the Blackberry Storm for instance) that said fan page should contain information regarding new product specs and possibly links to a virtual view of the product. Perhaps consider offering free trials to some of the most passionate RIM fans based on comments and interaction with the fan page. Wouldn’t this be the ideal way in which to engage in two way communication with customers? I can see this Engagement Advertising Model working in the long term.
The other “Engagement Advertisement” ideas I am not too sure about. If I wanted to add a comment couldn’t I just do that on the product’s fan page? so why create a separate space just for Facebook user comments? and am I really going to trade around miniature versions of the Blackberry Storm with all my friends? I don’t know maybe I have gotten too old 
and it doesn’t hold the same appeal for me as it does for others. Maybe it can happen with the right product, but I would still see these two forms of EA getting boring really quick. I suppose that’s the thing with new technologies and in particular Facebook Applications, once you’ve played with them for a while, they become like forgot toys never to be played with again.
**(The stat came from Jeremiah Owyang’s blog for Forrester Research www.web-strategist.com/blog/category/facebook-strategy/)
The ads must work otherwise the advertisers would not be paying the inflated prices that Facebook charges for their ad space. Facebook tries to limit the ads to a very specific set that generally does not allow diet products. Sometimes they allow some products to slip through.