Have Facebook Resorted To Bribery?

In its ever-ongoing drive to raise advertising revenues and prove that the channel is an effective internet marketing tool, Facebook has tried many strategies in the past.  Many of them have had the largest internet advertisers in mind, as Facebook attempts to grab a higher percentage of the millions brands such as Unilever and Disney spend on marketing every year.

However, their latest wheeze is aimed very firmly at the small business.  Facebook's Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has told US paper, USA Today, that "I think every small business using Facebook.  We're not going to stop until all of them are using it to grow their business".  In practical terms, that means Facebook is hatching a plan; it plans to give $50 in free ad credit to thousands of small (at present, just US-based) businesses, in order to encourage them to experiment in using the network to market to their usually very local markets.

Now, Sandberg heralds from Google, who have made a fortune convincing small companies to use AdWords as a measureable, targetable form of online advertising, so it makes sense that she would look to this group as a source of ad dollars.  However, Google and Facebook are two different kettles of fish; users going to Google are actively looking for something, often a product, and Google offers many other add-ons - such as maps and directions that are invaluable for the small business.  Facebook may find thousands of companies saying Yes please to the $50 - who wouldn't?  - but no thanks to investing their own money afterwards.