How SocialAds Will Revolutionize Advertising

Last night while involved in a deep dialogue over dinner I finally realized the significance of Facebook's social ads program. Before explaining how this system will theoretically democratize advertising, I'd like to give a brief overview of the tranformation taking place in media today. Our Varying Sources of News Over the past century (or so) we have witnessed the rapid development of technological innovations that have transformed communication. Beginning with the printing press and continuing on to radio, television and finally over the past 20 years: the internet. Our source for news and media has transitioned from news anchors and journalists that we are personally disconnected from to trusted sources that we have created personal ties to. The internet has enabled content creators to reach out and contact their viewers directly which has empowered both the media consumer as well as the new media professional. While we still go to mainstream sources of news such as CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc, an increasing percentage of our news is being consumed via non-traditional sources (such as this blog). In addition to the non-traditional sources are our personal connections. We receive information that is directly transmitted to us by our friends, family and professional contacts. These sources can be just as influential as other news sources and freqently more so. The key to all of these sources is influence. New Model of Advertising The Facebook newsfeed has been one of the most significant innovations on the web over the past couple years. As such we have seen a number of competing newsfeed tools pop-up around the web all striving to accomplish the same thing: aggregating, filtering and delivering news from our personal connections. These newsfeeds are able to systematically determine what news is important to us in addition to who is important to us. Over time these systems are able to determine degrees of influence from all of our contacts. Through the viewing of profiles, reading of messages, and clicks on links related to our contacts, social networks in conjunction with newsfeeds can now determine who has the most influence on us. These systems can help us derive an influence factor between two individuals as well as the summation of an individual's personal influence factors. These influence factors can be instantly monetized. Advertisers receive a highly efficient advertising platform and individuals are rewarded for their level of influence. The initial response by users to this new form of advertising has been mixed as many are shocked with their friend's image appearing in an ad. While initially these SocialAds may not be overwhelmingly embraced, users will eventually realize that these advertisements are in reality the democratization of advertising and that we can be rewarded for the effort we put in to building our relationships. When an advertiser contacts me in the future to advertise on my various websites, they won't ask me simply for pageviews, instead they will ask me for my personal influence factor. The higher this factor, the more money I can generate from each advertisement. I am in turn rewarded for building my influence and the platform which calculates this influence is also rewarded through a basic fee. Philosophical Conflicts As we begin to explore this new form of advertising questions immediately arise. Is the monetization of our influence and personal relationships ethical? Is this something that consumers want? There are a number of other questions that arise and while I have an opinion on each one, I do not have a complete answer. This is for the people to decide. As I see it the power has finally been granted to the people and advertisers no longer just pay the media companies but instead everybody. While this revolution may not take place overnight it is occuring and my opinion it is the next phase of advertising. What do you think?

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How SocialAds Will Revolutionize Advertising

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Nick O'Neill

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Nick O'Neill