It remains to be seen how users will react to all this additional marketing 

Facebook’s announcement on February 29, 2012 that it would allow brand pages to use the timeline format overshadowed the debut of their new ad formats. For large advertisers Facebook “premium offers” now allow ads to be posted to newsfeeds and timelines. This front and center placement of advertisements shows that Facebook is serious about selling ad space. Facebook’s logout page will also now feature ads. In addition, news feed ads will start being seen on mobile devices.

Page owners can take wall posts, including polls or videos, and easily convert them into ads. The idea is that these ads will become less like advertising and more like storytelling. As Facebook’s customer marketing director, Mike Hoefflinger, said at the launch, “We are evolving from advertising to stories. Ads are good, but stories are better.”

These ads also try to add in a social element. If you view a premium ad, Facebook will expand the ad to include a line that shows which of your friends “like(s)” the page.
Read More

Approximately 8 disease focused Facebook pages were taken down by pharma companies rather than open them to comments 

A few months ago Facebook announced that on August 15 they would enable commenting on biotech and pharmaceutical Facebook pages. The exception would remain pages that specifically focus on a prescription product and not building a community. Now that this deadline has passed, I wanted to see what impact this new policy had on the pharma Facebook landscape. I focused on prescription medications and pharmaceutical companies, not hospitals or over-the-counter drugs.

Lunesta appears to be the one pharma brand taking advantage of the exception and remains on Facebook with comments disabled. A few companies are using a workaround: by taking down all their wall posts there is no way for people to comment. These include Botox, Juvederm, Latisse and Novartis, although Novartis notes: “The Novartis Facebook page is being redesigned to align with new Facebook policies.”

Read More