I would have agreed with you on this three months ago - but having just finished an ad campaign on Facebook for a client, the results we had I found to be exceptionally good - I wouldn't say this is the rule for all ad campaigns on Facebook but its certainly encouraging.

Would you mind me asking what your client ending up paying per click ?

Wouldn't your marketing strategy depend on your product?

If I was promoting a band, for example, I'd turn to facebook. If I was promoting an opticians, I'd focus more on SERPS and Adwords.

The first question should always be 'Who are my market' and the second question 'How can I reach them?' FB, Twitter et all are just another possibly answer.

The very reason internet and google became famous is beacase i DID NOT have friends who think/like/have attitudes like me. everyone is unique and it is very difficult to find compatible friends having all my interests.

Hence i go on internet/google. If the info i want, would be best given by my friends, i might well as call them and have an immediate super interactive discussion than posting FB updates and waiting for an answer.

FB is going the TV way. idiot box. ppl like their minds to be fed with all general(read 'money making corporations') stuff. ppl who truly want to discover and search things will not depend on FB. Niche forums/blogs and websites is where 'quality' will exist.

Not to mention that FB requires you to first login and then do your stuff. So you are monitored all the time. what you do is the 'gold' info that FB and Corporations want. your info is the product they are selling to megacorps.

To me, as an online marketer, this poses a question. Do I...

a) Direct more PPC and SEO to Bing, as Facebook users go there

or

b) Find a way to tell millions of "friends" about my offerings via Facebook.

There is a theoretical option c), i.e. advertising on FB directly, but until they offer something contextual the traffic has proven to be too scattergun to convert for me.

As mentioned above, it's all about intent. It would be interesting to run a poll asking how many people had made an online purchase using FB versus G.

Not to mention that FB requires you to first login and then do your stuff. So you are monitored all the time. what you do is the 'gold' info that FB and Corporations want. your info is the product they are selling to megacorps.

Unless you surf 100% anonymously (which I know a few do around here) then this is the same all over the web!

Many of the niche forums and websites that you talk about use your information to work with 'niche' affiliate networks... theres nothing 'niche' about making money at the end of the day.

Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN

Probably because Yahoo and MSN run paid ad campaigns on facebook but not on Google, lol. If someone wants to go to "yahoo" or "msn" they hardly need to use a search engine to find those anyway...