Facebook testimonies...in advertisements

This article from Chicago Breaking Business, attributed to Dow Jones Newswires, introduces Facebook's campaign for "sponsored stories," where targeted advertisements will not only contain businesses recommended, but "exact copies of the likes, comments and location check-ins that users post to their own walls and show up in their friends' home page news feeds."

While this information is public enough to be shared on Facebook, it's interesting that it was just now thought of to use the testimonies of others to push products. We learned in my marketing class last semester that comments and feedback on product websites make someone 40 percent more inclined to purchase an item. Therefore, seeing that you have your friends' approval and virtual recommendations helps products earn popularity to an extent.

What irritates me about this is how we no longer live in a world of independence, but one of peer pressure. If 100 of my (Facebook) friends like a nearby tattoo parlor in town, must I be encouraged to 'like' it too? And then proceed to see a special they have on my news feed, become tempted by it and get a tattoo? (Timeout: completely mythical and theoretical situation, I would never get a tattoo). But this is what I foresee happening with restaurants, clothing stores, books and additional products sold online.

We will see where this new innovation goes and slowly watch the price of Facebook's targeting advertisement rise as people listen to their friends' suggestions on what to buy, eat and order at a specific place. Facebook claims that the posts are not able to be edited when they show up in someone's news feed but "they can be flagged for offensive content." Which basically means they can be taken down and one will see only the positive comments about a proposed location. But does that make us an optimistic or deceiving society?

After Megabus cancelled its trip to Kansas City and Laura ended up spending an extra evening at my house and flying home, we both 'liked' Megabus on Facebook to tag it in our statuses. We wanted to tell the whole world that Megabus did this, and promote other modes of transportation for our friends' future travels. The Megabus public relations department is evidently very strong, because our posts did not even appear on its main page because the statuses had words like "sucks" and "fail." Although it's not edited, is it ethical to only have the ability to see the positive things and not the honest opinions?

We have hit the top, and I look forward to being a firsthand viewer of the success (or lack thereof?) of targeted advertisements through Facebook commentary.