Looks like Facebook is losing some points due to poor ad monitoring on its advertising platform, according to NMA.

High-profile brands such as eBay, First Direct, Vodafone, O2 and now Tesco have all taken measures to remove advertising from the social networking giant after finding their ads placed next to inappropriate content and groups supporting holocaust denial and extreme political parties such as the BNP.

Seems like the industry has been putting quite a lot of pressure on Facebook to stop the misplacement of ads and either give more control to brands or Facebook should dedicate more time to monitor particular controversial groups and proceed with the removal of ads.

A couple years back, Facebook had somewhat solved the problem after Vodafone had proceeded with the removal of their ads, however, it seems problem has resurfaced once again.

These are serious mistakes that could, if perceived by many, present quite a big challenge for corporations. However, in an UGC network as such, it is almost impossible to control absolutely everything.

Possible solutions to these issues could be:

1. You advertise on Facebook and are prepared to accept that your ads could appear beside inappropriate content. If your brand is strong enough and well-established such mishaps shouldn’t present any repercussions.
2. You can choose to only advertise on the Facebook homepage and/or user profiles to be on the safe side.
3. Advertise on Facebook and closely monitor your ads.
4. Don’t advertise on Facebook at all.

Deals, deals, deals; seems to be the tendency nowadays amongst all big cheeses in the corporate world. Vodafone, the mobile telecom giant and MySpace, one of the largest online social networks brought Vodafone Music Reporter live this week.

This feature is expected to help share Vodafone’s music initiatives with its customers by displaying all sponsored events on the leading online community. Such events will include summer festivals and concerts which can then be further promoted by users with the insertion of pictures and videos available to all music fans, which leads me to my next point.

Music fans in Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK will be enabled to participate in a competition where they will basically be judged by their ‘reporting skills’ while attending one of these Vodafone Music Unlimited events to take place this summer.

The online interactive music platform will choose contestants depending on a submission of a picture or video from the latest gig they attended, which will be voted on by friends of the Vodafone Music Reporter community on MySpace.

Because MTV is also partially running this contest, the winner will be sent along an MTV crew for a day, where he/she will have the opportunity to record a specific event or concert while being in the spotlight as an on-line reporter for the mobile and online version of the show.

I guess it is a cool initiative. This opens way for music enthusiasts to participate and enjoy music in a social networking space. User-generated content is also applicable making the experience all the more interactive and feel like part of a real music community.

Talk about desperately wanting to secure all possible URL matches, misspelled or not, for the new generation iPhone.

To be honest, I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry when it comes to Vodafone’s triple hit or miss set of links.

You’d think people would know how to spell iPhone by now, (I guess not in Italy) given that its one of Apple’s most popular products. Wait! what am I saying, ALL of Apple’s products are popular (and cool), but the iPhone, as Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO declares, and I will have to agree, is “the phone that has changed phones forever”.

So let’s take a look at what Vodafone’s links look like for our 3G iPhone:

URL #1 : http://ifone.vodafone.it

URL #2: http://ifon.vodafone.it

URL #3: http://iphon.vodafone.it

and of course, the one and only http://iphone.vodafone.it

But then again, why wouldn’t they do that when its pretty clear the new, revamped iPhone will actually generate them massive site traffic, hence boost Vodafone’s sales. And for only $200, the iPhone is now within reach of a much wider consumer market and practically serves as a magnet to pull customers from other mobile phone operators like TIM or Wind, which I’m sure haven’t pulled the same ‘link trick’…yet.

To know more about the ‘really big thing about the new iPhone’, Stan Schroeder plots it out quite nicely for you on his article.