Facebook knows what consumers buy

Fidelity
card linked to Facebook

The whole
thing is based on the linking of databases. People who register for a fidelity
card often give their e-mail address. The same has to be done to register for
Facebook, which makes a connection between the two fairly easy.

Facebook is
working with data specialists Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon for this. Datalogix
worked with Facebook before to research to what extent an ad on a
social network leads to the purchase of a product or a service.

Revolution
in Facebook marketing?

The new
plans of Facebook are an expansion of the current offer. Currently the social
network gives the option to show ads only to people within a certain target
audience. That can go from simple characteristics such as age or location, to
more specific criteria, such as fans of a certain brand. Those will now be
expanded with data of real purchases.

It is still
to be seen if the new advertising possibility will be a success and if it does not clash with the current laws on privacy.