

Transforming the FB Ad Platform into a discovery tool for users  - thebdmethod
http://monkeymace.com/post/24455596083/how-facebook-can-refocus-their-ad-platform-as-a-discover

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alainbryden
These are a lot of really good ideas. Think about how much people like clever
and funny TV adds released to Youtube. They upvote them, favourite them, and
share them with their friends. (Old Spice, Superbowl ads, those old Rube
Goldberg car commercials.)

If ads were treated like they were on Youtube - potentially entertaining or
thought-provoking bits that people intentionally browse, upvote and share,
Facebook would get much less flak for the way they've been trying to monetize
their users. It would also promote creativity and thoughtfulness - which is
something long term internet users respond to much more than the old blinking
text and flash animations strategy.[citation needed]

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monkeymace
Does anyone think this revision of the Facebook Ad Platform is viable? Or
would users be freaked out with too much a focus on ads?

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freehunter
I really do think that a StumbleUpon for ads would be great. People willingly
tell SU what they like and don't like (which is what Facebook and Google are
doing, but without explicit, up-front, opt-in consent). SU has millions of
users, including me.

By telling them what content I want to see and what I don't want to see, I'm
pretty happy knowing that I'm seeing exactly what I told them I wanted to see.
Advertisers could do a lot in this space, and it sounds exactly like what you
described.

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monkeymace
How great would it be if Stumble Upon was pre-seeded with a ton of content
automatically mined from your online behavior. Manually curating a relevant
stream of content requires alot of energy and effort. Right now, Facebook is
the easiest, lowest effort source of content. I imagine most Hacker News
readers are pretty advanced when it comes to content discovery. But the
average user is not as savy. By giving them a few tools, and a clear rules
about how their behavior on facebook, (liking, sharing, reading, viewing, etc)
contributes to the ads they are served, it could actually become a great
resource that they pay attention to

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drharris
The best forms of advertising don't give a user what he is already looking
for, they give him what he doesn't know he needs. By manually curating what
ads you like, chances are you'll miss stuff that is actually relevant. I'm a
developer, but I have no desire to "learn javascript", because I know it
already. Someone who is really into vintage cars will ignore car ads all the
time; they have an existing network of sources and information and aren't as
interested in changing that unless the story is very compelling.

Contrast that with the idea that FB knows about a 55-year old man that makes
~90k and has few hobbies, but has recently started reconnecting with all his
buddies from high school; that type of person is now a profile for someone in
whom an advertiser might create a NEW interest for vintage cars. The best part
is you don't have to use forensic psychologists to create these profiles;
simple statistics would be enough.

