Facebook Sponsored Stories

Late last month Facebook announced a really interesting advertising product, Sponsored Stories. Here’s how it works:

Today, when I check into your hotel using Facebook Places, some of my friends get that story in their feed. The ones who see it will be the people who interact with me the most. If the update is popular and generates a large number of likes and comments, more of my friends will see it.

Facebook’s new ad product allows brands to pay for that same message being distributed inside of an ad unit to all of my 500 friends with the goal of providing wider distribution and visibility to influence more friends. Historically, a brand could only put videos or content they created inside of ads – now they can leverage the true social conversation by highlighting content from users.

Facebook Sponsored Stories shows up inside of an ad unit on the right hand side of the page that is clearly marked as an ad unit, but contains the content of the actions you and your friends have taken. Hoteliers – would love to know if you plan to run any Sponsored Stories. Comment below with any thoughts.

Read more from Mashable here.