David, did you see this article?
I was really surprised to see All Things D’s editorial take on this new program. I agree with your statement in your op-ed that your initial posts on Facebook “come from the heart”. In their initial posts, users, like you, are choosing to mention their association with a brand. The Sponsored Stories crosses that line from mentioning association to full-on endorsement. I may post that I’m at a Starbucks because I freely associate and identify with that brand’s image, but that doesn’t mean I want Starbucks to make that look like a recommendation to my friends. Also, I know most of my friends may miss my initial post in their Feeds, and blowing it up into a full on ad makes it very difficult to miss, and much less of the casual, organic mention I meant it to be.

As a user, I agree there should be an opt out. But as a marketer, I’m ready to get client ads up on there the second the option opens up to me in the self-service ads center. This is actually a fantastic fit for a brand who interacts well with people on their Facebook page, since engaging their customers in dialogue will give them lots of stories to sponsor. This could be part of really big Facebook strategies, and could help close the gap between paid and organic marketing on social media. It’s tough NOT to like it from a purely marketing standpoint.

But then I noticed who the main advertiser was:

Dum-dum-DAAAAA!  Is it a coincidence that Google is spending money on ComedyCentral.com on the night that Jon Stewart smacks down Apple?  I THINK NOT!*

(I actually do have a Google search story.  It’s here.  People my age love sharing, and love autobiographing in ways that take less than five minutes, so this ad is perfect for the ComedyCentral.com audience)

For those of you who may have missed it, you can see the full Daily Show episode on the website.

Oh, and while you’re in a mood to be amused, there’s a great writeup on Valleywag about the Deadly Curse of AOL.  AOL are in the news today because they sold ICQ to the Russians for much less than they paid for it.  There goes another chunk of Internet nostalgia, sold to the Russians (Livejournal was sold to Russian company SUP last year).

I think the REAL curse of AOL is that they can’t permanently assign sales people who can grow with the agencies and brands they work with.  My team has been through a half-dozen AOL reps and team members who were supposed to be permanently assigned to our agency.  And every time we would have a big team meeting, and explain our clients and our goals for our campaigns, and discuss opportunities.  Our reps would get the hang of working with us, learn about what we needed, and call us for fire sale remnant inventory on homepage opportunities.  Then the reps would be laid off or reassigned, and we would have to start again.  I think I could probably find my current AOL rep in my Outlook, but I’d have to check with my AOL Search rep (who, thankfully, has been a stable presence) to be sure.  THAT is the curse of AOL.  Maybe re-org’ing their sales department will give us a trusted rep we can work with for years.  Meanwhile, I’ll be calling our last set of reps – they all took the time to understand my business needs, and now that they’re at new partners/publishers/vendors, I’ll see if I can give them the budget.

*Actually, I think it is a coincidence that Google is advertising on ComedyCentral.com the night Jon Stewart insinuated Apple was the iGestapo. But I thought saying otherwise would be more dramatic