'Become a fan!'

Today Facebook debuted Facebook Ads, customized for Pages and Events. This means businesses can promote Pages or Events on the right-hand side of select demographics' profiles, outfitted with a "Become a Fan" or "RSVP to This Event" link within the ad.

If members of a user's network are already fans of a Page or have RSVPed to an event, his or her information will also appear in the Page/Event ad, adding a convivial peer pressure quality to the gimmick.

The ads are intended to engage users "the same way they interact with other content on Facebook without leaving the page they're viewing," Facebook wrote. Users can click on the title, image or body of the ad to go directly to a page or learn more about an event.

Advertisers will be billed based on standard bidding rates. For example, CPC (cost-per-click) bidders will be charged when users take a positive action, such as becoming a fan or RSVPing as a result of seeing the ad.

Total minutes spent on Facebook in April '09 increased 700% year over year (13.9 billion minutes spent versus 1.7 billion minutes in April '08), reports MarketingCharts, making it the top social networking site for the period.

This week, socnet rival MySpace partnered with ad firm SocialMedia.com to launch Interaction Ads, which also incorporates aspects of what friends like into ads targeted to a given user.

Image credit: All Facebook.