While teenagers may not be enthusiastic about Facebook, the company has a fan in Ashton Kutcher. The actor and angel investor, who is set to play Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs, recently spoke at the CTIA Conference in Las Vegas, saying that Twitter is too crowded and that Facebook has actually effectively placed its advertisements.
We're kicking off our upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp with a special keynote presentation by Ella Chick (left), the digital producer at Anderson Cooper 360°. She'll discuss how the network uses social media for breaking news and leverages social media to draw attention to organizations and causes. Learn more about our program and register here. 
AdRoll, a Facebook Exchange partner, announced Wednesday that it has rolled out ad retargeting in the News Feed. The company launched this capability earlier this month in beta, and opened it up to all AdRoll customers Wednesday. This way, advertisements can be tailored to target users’ activity off of Facebook.
Facebook is handily winning the battle of social networks in south Asia. According to a new study by Jana, Facebook is the social network of choice in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, toppling Twitter, Google Plus, and Zing. In nearly every country, more than 70 percent of respondents said they use Facebook more than any other social media site.
In March, Facebook started an alpha test of Facebook Exchange in the News Feed. Monday, Facebook announced that the FBX for News Feed program has been successful so far, and it is expanding in beta. This technology allows advertisers to retarget Facebook users who visited their websites with page post ads in the News Feed, and not just sidebar ads.
Many Facebook marketers fear the site’s rule that photo advertisements must contain no more than 20 percent text, mainly because there’s not a great way to tell beforehand if ads violates the guideline. Internet marketing firm TechWyse developed an in-house checking tool, and it decided recently to open it up to the public. Now advertisers can simply upload images and see if they contain more than 20 percent text.
Facebook has been aggressively rolling out new advertising vehicles over the past few months, but it appears as if the site is going to focus on what it’s got going now. In an earnings call Wednesday with investors, Facebook’s top officials said that the company is more set on making sure that the types of ads that are currently in place are the kinds that will be relevant for users and generate engagement. However, as some brands improperly use or overuse News Feed ads, users may be less likely to do much more than keep scrolling.
In an effort to attract advertisers, Facebook has partnered with firms such as Datalogix to find out how the social network influences online purchasing behavior. These efforts will likely be ramped up, as TechCrunch reported Thursday that Datalogix has raised $25 million in Series B funding, led by Institutional Venture Partners.
Facebook has been tweaking the options within promoted posts for pages, but social media expert Jon Loomer noticed recently that page administrators can now promote posts to everyone on the social network.
As a digital marketer, I’m reading far too many articles taking jabs at the Facebook advertising platform. The argument runs that because the ads you see against your profile are sometimes irrelevant, Facebook’s business model is flawed. Most of the articles of this ilk focus on this being Facebook’s problem, with this being a product-related issue. From a user and business perspective, this is simply not true.
When users start getting Facebook Home on Android devices, there won’t be paid advertising. But much like other Facebook products, it’s likely coming. Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t rule it out when the product was announced last week. Todd Herrold, senior director of product marketing at Kenshoo Social, talked with AllFacebook about how Facebook Home can change mobile advertising.
