File under: Ways social media is changing advertising for the better.

In the past I’ve expressed my distaste for FaceBook’s advertising approach. They used to run ads in-line with the “news feed” and it was designed to look in every way like content generated by a friend. Tricking me, if only for a moment, into thinking a friend recommended some product or movie tarnished my trust for FaceBook.

Well, now I feel it’s only right to come out on record and applaud FaceBook for their recent move, which presents ads with better transparency — like ads. But they go a step further into actually being helpful (to themselves and to users) by letting users identify whether the ad aligns with their interests.

This is an instance of how user choice in advertising (or even just perceived user choice) can create affinity for the advertiser and for the property hosting the ads. It’s the win-win-win that all ad people aim for.

It’s pretty clear FaceBook is trying everything with their advertising approach, as they haven’t stopped the ads-in-your-news-feed entirely. I do hope the new model works for them, because if it does it is better for everybody.

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