Facebook is set to capitalise on it’s massive growth and the depth of knowledge it has within the millions of profiles by providing an Ad-targetting service that goes beyond the current selections of age, gender and location of the user.

The new service will allow targeting based on the profile’s favourite activities and preferred music. Currently Facebook displays ads in flyers around the border of Facebook pages, but the new ads will appear in other places interspersed with profile content.

This follows on a report commissioned by Newscorp called Never Ending Friending, which discusses two campaigns from Addidas and EA there were run on the Myspace network. The report was compiled by Forrester research and argues that communication should be measured by the spread of a message not just from a business to a consumer, but also the ongoing discussions from consumer to consumer.

Perspective: Social networks can no longer be ignored as a serious communication medium. Determining how to “join” the conversations for marketeers will require innovative value equations. For example, a health business might decide to sponsor a niche health groups, providing free consultations as well as relevant advice to facilitate conversational engagement.

via Wall Street Journal