Meeting Face to Face to Talk about Facebook Advertising Today

I”m up early this morning, heading for a rendezvous to meet a friend who will drive us both to Pittsfield. I haven’t been to this city in a long time, and today’s visit is to meet employees of Facebook who will present about how to use their gigantic service for local advertising.

Facebook began with such a simple promise, and got the majority of us hooked on keeping up with our friends and relatives photos, latest career news, and about what we’re doing that very instant.  As the participant-population has approached 75%, more and more advertising has been coming down the news feed, and we knew that as we watched the site go public and now hear about Mark Zuckerberg’s weekly billion-dollar acquisitions.

The company has been crafty in blending the popular features and drawing back the impact that individuals can have when they publish a post–fewer and fewer people see them unless you give it that famous Facebook juice–peel off $20 or $30 bucks and THEN your post will be seen by thousands, not dozens.

The best part of this morning is that I’ll get to see my old friend Jaclyn Stevenson, who moved to Lenox four years ago for a new job. She’s just one of many of my Facebook friends who signed up and whom I’ll see at the seminar.

So this morning we will hear from Facebook staff about all the tricks of their trade, and I’m sure it will also come with a heavy dose of salesmanship. Hey, they aren’t driving out to Pittsfield for free.