On March 8, Justin Maas, vice president of client relations at the award-winning social media agency fishbat, Inc., comments on the announcement of Facebook’s new partnerships with data-mining companies detailed in a “fishbat Splash” video.

According to Facebook’s blog post, the social network recently struck a deal with data archiving companies Datalogix, Acxiom, Epsilon and BlueKai. Facebook has been able to track purchases that users make online for some time. However, through the partnerships with these companies, Facebook will be able to see what users are buying offline as well as in-store.

As part of its “Custom Audiences” program, Facebook will use data from store loyalty cards already compiled from the data-archiving companies, the blog says. This information will be compared with Facebook profile criteria like name, phone number and e-mail address. Facebook will then use that information to generate ads targeting what that a user buys offline.

Maas says this is a really big move for Facebook. “The deal could make singling out consumers a lot easier,” he says. “By tracking offline purchases, Facebook can minutely target that individual and find out more about that person’s spending habits.”

For example, Maas says that sometimes there can be a few different users on one computer. This can make determining a specific person’s likes a lot harder. “Facebook can look at what these people are buying in the store and create ads aimed at those products,” he says. “It also helps marketers target consumers for their clients. A social media agency can really benefit from this whole situation.”

Maas says fishbat, a leading social media agency, plans on researching consumers purchasing habits through the new update to help their clients “get a closer point of sale.”

Though Facebook does share some information with advertisers, Mashable reports that the network will not expose personal or financial information.

fishbat, Inc. is a full service online marketing company. Through social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, and public relations, fishbat strives as a marketing firm to raise awareness about your brand and strengthen your corporate image.
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