Facebook rolls out 'Sponsored Stories': What you need to know

Sponsored Stories is the new ad unit which will turn four specific types of user actions into featured advertisements: Likes, Places checkins, Actions within custom applications and Page updates which would normally show up in a user's news feed.

So if a company has a custom Facebook app, it can promote user actions within those apps and add its branding, as well as on posts where users mention brands or places they like, or on the wall of a brand's fan page.

Companies can choose to take some of these user actions linked to their brands, and pull the updates out of the regular News Feed and feature them in the column on the right hand side of the page where the Sponsored Stories slot will be displayed. The ad will display the user's name and photo, any additional context or friends they've tagged, a picture of and link to the advertised Facebook Page or app, and the Likes and comments from the original post.

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