In one of Facebook’s latest efforts to monetize the participation of its over 500 million members, the company announced in early 2011 that it will offer advertisers a new opportunity: “Sponsored Stories.”

Sponsored Stories will republish a content user’s post about an advertiser’s brand as part of banner ads. Advertisers can opt to have several types of user-posted content appear as Sponsored Stories, such as page “likes,” check-ins, application engagement, and page posts.