The value for users on Facebook is Facebook- social ads

Good summary today in NYTimes about how Facebook makes money via social ads.

The deal is, when you “like” a brand or a product, there is the potential for the company to turn that “like” into an ad. So effectively, by “liking”, you become a spokesperson for the brand/product to all your friends… instant word-of-mouth advertising! (Or sponsored stories is FB-parlance)

If you follow the ad market, you knew this but to many users this is coming as a surprise. One quote in the story caught my eye:

“So Sponsored Stories creates a zero-sum game,” Mr. Goldman wrote. “I as a user probably don’t get any value from the public presentation of my implicit endorsement (if anything, it might hurt my position with my friends), but Facebook and its advertisers benefit from it.”

While I’m sympathetic to the argument, I don’t quite accept it. Facebook is a communications platform the hundreds of millions find useful everyday (certainly I do.)

While I’m a little creeped-out by Facebook taking all of my personal data, I am getting value from the transaction. The value I get out of Facebook is Facebook.

As service that I find very useful, and I get to use it for free.

So Much for Sharing His ‘Like’ – NYTimes.com.