Facebook - Free Classifieds With Profiles

Posted by Phil Butler on May 11th, 2007

The 22 million users of Facebook will have access to free classified ad listings as the social networking site enters into competition with traditional newspapers and online companies like Craigslist. The company is targeting the high school and college segment of their user base to offer yet another feature that will appeal to this demographic. Users will now be able to advertise themselves to the world at perhaps the world's fastest growing social networking site.

The new service will be called Marketplace, and is suppose to launch today according to Brad Stone of the NYT. The service will start with four categories including: housing, jobs, for sale and a catch all titled other. The philosophy of this latest move is simple in that Facebook wants to provide more and more practical and useful value to attract new users and convince existing ones to return. 

Facebook users will have control over who sees their advertisements by limiting views to friends and relatives or syndicating them to the world via RSS feeds. Facebook is the U.S.�s sixth most visited site according to the NYT article and part of its popularity is because of the privacy features it offers.

The move is a logical effort to offer the same features as MySpace in my opinion, but it is never the less a good deal for Facebook users. Social networking may seem to be at its zenith, but there are still many aspects that have yet to be tapped in my opinion.

“The advantage of having classifieds linked to a social network is that you know something about the seller,” said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. “You are less likely to buy a lemon from someone who is a friend of yours.”

Bigger Ideas 

This quote reflects a lot more than the author perhaps intended about the potential of social networking. In an ever increasingly competitive world credibility and depth will surely become more relevant. I think of these people spaces in terms of “snapshots” of more than just two dimensional characters. The writings, photos, links and other information of people can illustrate a great deal more than just a superficial view it observed correctly. One day soon businesses will surely have corporate psychologists and PR people looking into the potential of future employees and business partners. I don't expect the would-be Congressman of the future has taken this into consideration, but I know I can screen shot anyone who has a space anywhere on the Web. This can be viewed in both a positive and a negative light for sure.

A skilled person in 2015 will certainly have a portfolio of creations and self announcement far beyond the 2 page resume, and some of this is already commonplace. Another aspect of this “new bubble of opportunity” will be sales. A Facebook entry can be mashed into anything of course, but people will have a great deal more capability to make educated decisions about who they do business with beyond anything we imagined a few years ago.

Local Just Got Bigger 

These are just random thoughts about possibilities, but Facebook has takes a giant step into competition with both traditional advertising and online versions. 22 million people make a nice little market for anyone selling anything in my book. Your local classifieds may have just stretched over hundreds of cities and thousands of miles. Free ads combined with rather in depth profiles hits eBay right where it hurts just to mention one. I will leave further speculation in the capable hands of you guys, but Facebook seems to be making all the right moves lately.

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