Facebook plans to give advertisers more control over what appears in users’ news feeds, according to a blog about the popular social-networking Web site.

In the next six to 12 months, Facebook will be developing a new aspect of their Social Ads program, which will allow advertisers to “pay to accelerate usage they find valuable, to dial up and down actions that people take on applications,” Facebook’s Director of Monetization Tim Kendall told the blog, All Facebook.

The Facebook news feed currently uses a formula to communicate a user’s actions to their friends who would find the information most interesting, but according to the Web site, marketers will soon be able to pay for increased distribution of information.

An example could be purchasing concert tickets. Usually if a user updates the concert application to show that he or she is attending a certain concert, only certain friends of the user would receive the notification.

With this new ability, however, companies like Ticketmaster or the band itself could pay for the notification to be broadcast to a user’s entire friend list.

ASU marketing professor Jim Ward said he thinks the new Social Ads strategy could be interesting, but “from the perspective of the user, it could be annoying.”

Ward said Facebook needs to be careful because their users might switch to competitors’ Web sites if they become too annoyed with being used for product placement.

Business management junior Jayme Manos agrees that it’s an interesting strategy, but it has the potential to become obnoxious.

“I don’t want to see a bunch of news feeds that I don’t care about,” he said.

Ward said both Facebook and its users have concerns because the Web site needs to make money, but users also want their privacy. However, he added that when users sign up for the Web site, they accept an agreement and consent to the use of their personal information.

Because of this agreement, there hasn’t been a very strong legal case for privacy rights because attorneys think the agreement is sufficient, Ward said.

He added that this new strategy could erode Facebook’s brand equity and degree of credibility because users might not want their names used in an ad for a product.

On the other hand, Ward said the Social Ads could be a success because what a person’s friends are doing can affect the person’s consumer behavior.

Computer information systems sophomore Jeff Webb said he doesn’t know how successful the program could be.

“The strategy is worth a shot because users will pay attention and listen to their peers’ choices,” he said. Those choices might ultimately influence their actions and purchases, Webb added.

Reach the reporter at charlsy.panzino@asu.edu