Facebook. You have heard about it by now, whether from your teenager or a friend, or lately you've read about it in the business section. If you think that Facebook is just a Web site for high school and college kids to share funny pictures and stories, you are dead wrong.

Facebook has already become one of the most popular social networking sites in the world, with some 50 million users today—and that number has been doubling every six months.

A large and growing percentage of Facebook users are over the age of 23. There are nearly 6 million Facebook users over the age of 23 in the United States, and more than 4 million users each in Canada and the United Kingdom. In fact, US users under the age of 24 make up only 30 percent of all Facebook users.

Whether or not you completely understand social media or social networking sites, the one aspect you must understand is that they are going to change the way businesses advertise.

Facebook is constantly evolving and improving its users' experience with new features and applications.

Advertising: from Mass Media to Personal Connections

Facebook is trying to change the way businesses market and advertise their products and services to potential consumers.

Google AdWords revolutionized the way businesses market on the Internet by selling advertisements in a live auction style and by publishing the ads to individuals who are searching for relevant information, solutions and products. Facebook intends to improve on this and deliver even more targeted ads to users of their social network.

At the November 5 launch of Facebook's new advertising platform, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, presented his vision for the future of advertising:

"Once every hundred years media changes. The last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next hundred years information won't be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have. Advertising will change. You will need to get into these connections."

Major Corporations Are Facebook Believers

Many major corporations have already committed to using Facebook as a legitimate advertising platform, including Blockbuster, CBS, Chase, The Coca-Cola Co., Saturn, Sony Pictures, The New York Times Co., and Verizon. Why are these companies so excited to jump on board with Facebook?

Because Facebook is offering the most targeted—and therefore one of the most powerful—advertising platforms that has ever been created. Imagine being able to show your company's ads to only the consumers within your target market.

Due to the amount of information Facebook garners from users, ads can be shown to a specific type of user based on sex, age, education, relationship status, keywords that appear in their profile, or even political views. It's the promise of true one-to-one marketing.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Davis is an Internet marketing analyst with Capture Commerce (www.capturecommerce.com).