i am a pretty avid facebook user… and not necessarily because i think they are better than any other social network. it just happened that almost everybody i know found themselves there, and with friends and family across three continents, four timezones and about a dozen cities, facebook’s a great way to keep in touch…
lately i’ve noticed that folks at facebook are actually trying to get smart(!) with their advertising. well, depends on your standards for smart…
a few months ago, i’d tested their banner advertising and click thru rates were dismal. a lot of posts in the blogosphere had agreed with the results of my litmus test…
what i’ve noticed lately is that the sponsored ad in my newsfeed is based on my status.
yesterday, i updated my status to say: “Raif is revolutionizing car buying.” – in reference to an entrepreneurial project we’re working on with a classmate at berkeley.
as soon as i did that, i started seeing ebay motors ads and car classifieds in my newsfeed. yawn…
and later on the same day, i went to town on some domino’s pizza and updated my facebook status to reflect my accomplishment: “Raif just had his 5th slice of domino’s… he’s going to have to wear his fat jeans tomorrow…”.
and suddenly the ebay motors ads were replaced by an ad for a baseball cap company. i guess if i’m eating a lot of pizza, i must be wearing a lot of baseball caps… yawn…
you know, with a $15B valuation, $250M of microsoft cash and all the hype that facebook’s got in the valley, i expected a lot more, i still expect a lot more. my 5 year old standard schnauzer would be more creative with all of the data, traffic and userbase that facebook has…
time to find a shirt to go with my fat jeans and head off to work…
