Facebook unveiled new advertising opportunities Wednesday to help the world's biggest brands spread their messages on the world's largest online social network. Brands you've endorsed by hitting the “like” button will now be able to push deals and other updates right into the news feeds that show your friends' updates, photos and links. These marketing messages could also show up if one of your friends has interacted with a brand, such as by liking it or commenting on a photo. The new approach also means that advertisers will be able to reach users on mobile devices for the first time, giving Facebook a new and lucrative source of revenue. Facebook will start integrating brands' messages into the news feeds of its 845 million users as part of a long-term vision of moving from ads to stories about brands. Ads are not going away, but brands will now be able to push updates — or as Facebook likes to call, “stories” — right into the news feeds. Facebook's challenge will be to keep these ads as unobtrusive as possible so that users are not alienated or driven to “unlike” brands.
