Comment Re:Ad spam: finanancial scams (Score 1) 186
This is what I don't get. Facebook has a very large, and very captive audience. Why can't they get real ads for serious products on their site? People spend more time on Facebook than they do watching NBC, but you don't see stuff like that on NBC (or any major TV network). Are serious companies not willing to pay for internet ads? Are these spammy companies willing to pay more? I'm not an advertising exec, but I think that Facebook would stand to make a lot more money if they only had ads from legitimate companies selling real products.
It's not that spammy companies are willing to pay more. It's that the cost of putting up a few ads is measured in dollars while a 30 second spot on a major network is likely measured in the tens if not thousands of dollars (or millions during the Super Bowl). Additionally, the major companies don't need to *pay* for advertising because they have their free facebook pages (i.e. advertisements) that people willingly go to.
You have noticed that nearly every commercial on TV now includes a url for the company's facebook page instead of (or rarely in addition to) the company's own website -- the reason for this is that if you go and visit their facebook page, maybe you'll "like" something on it or comment or something like that which will then cause your network to then see activity on that company's facebook page.