I have only dipped my toes into the FB Ads thing after all the raving about it by online marketers who are always completely honest? And from my small spend I can gather that it's a system that works in-house and pretty much useless for advertisers with small budgets.
Theres always raving on FB about how specific and targeted you can get but when you go to place an ad it tells you your ad is too targeted, widen your reach... WTF?
I always thought FB itself was full of people looking to waste time and entertain themselves and maybe some of that involves buying something but I doubt many actually do considering the actual size of the member base.
Like you suggest it seems to me to be just a way to get the word out as wide as you can but with small budgets thats pretty useless unless you're a local business targeting your own home town which completely negates the main reason people start internet businesses... to go global? Ah well so much for big dreams and fast success. haha.
Oh congrats on the Drone Socks idea, get it copyrighted or I'm gonna nick it. You said it all and thanks for the insights. Much appreciated.
Also, maybe I am being naive but the idea of advertising my community on someone else's seems a little like "giving it away" but then I like the in-house idea and think that you need to find a way for people to get straight into your front door without having to go through someone elses? but that would take a massive budget? I am just into independence as far as I can possible be so thank Boonex for making Dolphin available to me.