Facebook users will now see sponsored stories on their news feed.

The news feed will give brands more advertising visibility on the social networking site.

If you are one of Facebook’s 200 million users and have liked brands or products on the site then in the New Year you will start to see some of these brands advertising on your news feed. Facebook’s aim is to ensure that brands are given as much opportunity to be visible to users in areas which are used more regularly. This is something which may annoy users further more due to their Facebook page changing yet again.

Facebook isn’t the first social networking site to implement these sponsored ads as Twitter also pushes sponsored tweets to users’ time lines if they follow that brand or organisation. Facebook first started to introduce advertising in the top right hand corner of the homepage which is constantly refreshing, which has proved to be a hit with companies who advertise there and users.

Many users have been critising the move to display sponsored feeds due to the site being used for brands’ personal gains and not focused on the users. The CEO for Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has said in response  that sponsored advertising is  “two to three times” more valuable than generic ads sold on Facebook. The reason for this is because it is tailored to individual users likes.

People have speculated that if this proves to generate even more profit for companies who advertise on the site then it could have a huge impact on the way that companies are advertising on Facebook. Only time will tell if this is the right move for Facebook but never the less the company is sure to be generating profit even in this wayward economic climate.