Using Facebook for commercial purposes

Facebook has become a great resource for companies. Nearly every company, from major retail stores to local pubs, has at least some presence on Facebook. The ability to easily reach out to hundreds of millions of people worldwide has made Facebook a hotspot for commercial advertising (although Facebook maintains its commitment to a relatively clutter-free website.) One of the best aspects of Facebook from an advertising standpoint is the wealth of information available to accurately target ads. Roughly half the ads that appear on my Facebook page are of at least moderate usefulness to me. Many of them are local businesses that have targeted only people within a close radius to the business itself. This allows smaller companies to pay less to advertise than they would on say, Google which may place ads on computer screens across the country or world (although with Google+ this will probably change quickly to be more targeted like Facbook.) From what I have gathered from researching the ad-placing costs on Facebook, the more confined your target audience (say, only those people with Facebook accounts within 30 miles of the Tri-Cities) the less you will probably end up paying as Facebook charges per ad, but only places ads on pages that meet your particular criteria. If I ever start up my own company, I feel that advertising to a select audience on Facebook would be one of my first customer relations moves after creating a company Facebook page.