Facebook recently announced that they had over 350 million users. So, the population of Facebook now exceeds that of America. Since September, Facebook Social Media network has added 50 million users, which means it now finds itself with 350 million of them.

There they are, cavorting away in cyberspace so thoughtfully (and expensively) provided by Facebook, where they post photographs of themselves in embarrassing situations, write affectionate or silly messages on one another’s “walls”, become “fans” of obscure comedians, join witty “groups” to support the Tiger Woods driving school and do other cool things too numerous to list. And all without paying a cent!

The above piece comes from,  in the main, a piece in the  Observer newspaper from December 6. The title says it all:  “Facebook now has 350m users – and there’s no point in advertising to them.” Why? Because online advertising “really works” only in the context of search, where user motivation increases the likelihood of interaction with ads.

Of course, as we in the Digital Marketing Institute have been saying for a while now, it is not the the size that matters but the quality.  So, let’s consider the advertising possibilities.

Let’s say that you are advertising “green training shoes”.  Now, which would be better - have someone SEARCH for “green trainers” (using Google or their favourite serach engine) or woudl you be better advertising to someone who just might be interested in green shoes cos they happen to hang around on Facebook?

This is exactly why advertisers are spending their advertising euro’s on Google.  The punters come to you ….. as opposed to you having to interrupt their Facebook activity.

So, what do you think?