Facebook's got a friend in Ford. 
 
 After General Motors announced it was killing its Facebook advertising just days before Facebook's IPO, Ford sent a tweet aimed at its auto rival (h/t Business Insider): 
 
 A GM executive told the The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Facebook advertising was ineffective. Critics have used metrics such as click-through rate to cast doubt on the product-pushing power of Facebook. A Webtrends report puts the Facebook click-through-rate (ad clicks vs. views) at 0.05 percent, far less than Google Display's 0.4 percent. 
 
 GM declined to comment for this story. 
 
 
 
 A Ford spokesman later reinforced the company's message, saying the old rules don't apply on such a new platform. 
 
 "You won't make the right choices if you view Facebook as an advertising network," Matt Van Dyke, Ford's director of marketing communications, told Forbes. "You can't just pick up advertising that would run somewhere else and put it on Facebook as an ad banner." 
 
 Ford, for its part, says the company has had success integrating paid advertising and content together on Facebook, according to Forbes. Ford also says it has collaborated directly with the social networking site. 
 
 A source familiar with Facebook's advertising deal with General Motors said the automaker had misused the platform. When GM tried to promote an application for its Chevrolet Plant a Tree campaign last fall, it focused on developing the app without properly investing in the channels to get it seen -- a combination of paid advertising and content -- according to the source, who asked not to be identified. 
 
 "You can't take an 'if you build an app, they will come' approach," the source explained to The Huffington Post. 
 
 The idea behind the application was that Chevy would plant a real tree in a national forest for every virtual one planted by a user. Although the application was posted on Chevy's page, it didn't receive additional distribution via paid media, the source said. 
 
 In addition, the application, developed by an agency hired and later fired by GM, appeared below the fold of the presentation and was designed as a one-time interaction "instead of giving users a reason to come back over and over again," the source added. 
 
 The Biggest Risks To Facebook's Business 
 
 The Biggest Risks To Facebook's Business 
 
 1 of 13 Mark Zuckerberg Controlling Too Much Perhaps the most eye-popping risk listed in the S-1 is the idea that Mark Zuckerberg's bad decision-making could lead to a decline in company value. Along with "users fleeing" and "decline in advertising revenue," the following was listed as a major risk factor: Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock. Zuckerberg owns 58 percent of Facebook stock, which means that he "has the ability to control the outcome of matters" that come before stockholders. Furthermore: As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Zuckerberg is entitled to vote his shares, and shares over which he has voting control as a result of voting agreements, in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally. Should stockholders fear the man who controls the company they hold stock in? Share this slide: 
 
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 Ford executives noted the abrupt abandonment of Facebook advertising by their cross-town rivals at General Motors and reiterated that they’re approaching social-media marketing differently. They also offered very thinly veiled criticism of GM’s move. 
 
 “We are doing more advertising on Facebook,” Matt VanDyke, Ford’s director of marketing communications, told me, “and it is a growing and critical part of our media mix.” 
 
 And presumably referring to GM, he said, “You won’t make the right choices if you view Facebook as an advertising network. You can’t just pick up advertising that would run somewhere else and put it on Facebook as an ad banner.” 
 
 Another highly ranked Ford-marketing insider was more critical of GM, calling it “odd to summarily cut off” paid advertising on Facebook. “It’s still the early days of this, and the metrics aren’t defined 100 percent,” said this observer, who declined to be identified. “But [social media] are so massive in their reach, and appropriately guided and applied, [advertising on Facebook] can be potent. 
 
 “Wouldn’t you just say to Facebook, ‘We’re not going to spend as much on paid advertising right now, and in order to earn our business, can we come up with something more clever and that is going to meet our objectives?” That’s how most marketers would approach it.” 
 
 GM’s decision, revealed on Tuesday, rocked the social-media and advertising worlds in part because the news came a few days before Facebook’s planned IPO on Friday, which could value the company at $100 billion or more. And GM hasn’t been alone among big-brand marketers in voicing uncertainties about whether paid advertising on Facebook — despite its user base and ubiquity — is worth the investment. 
 
 Still, the amount that GM paid to Facebook for advertising was only about $10 million a year, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story. That amounts to only about two days’ worth of overall media buying by the automotive behemoth, pointed out Rebecca Lindland, director of research for IHS Automotive, in a Forbes.com post on Tuesday. 
 
 And GM executives noted that they are still spending another roughly $30 million a year on their brands’ overall Facebook presence, including content initiatives that can be integrated with paid advertising. 
 
 But VanDyke and Scott Monty, Ford’s global head of social media, told me that Ford has made its Facebook presence productive for its brands and nameplates by ensuring that paid advertising is integrated with content on Facebook and usually is directly pertinent to a vehicle launch. “We collaborate with Facebook and decide what works,” VanDyke explained. “Our focus is on meaningful partnerships to generate engagement.” 
 
 For example, Ford recently combined paid advertising and content on Facebook in a “customizer” app for the Mustang, which included sponsored placement of a video on the logout page. “We got one million views in one day,” VanDyke said. “We found a unique way to use the logout page.” 
 
 Ford also has a Facebook presence, including paid advertising and other content, for its NBC Saturday-night show, Escape Routes, a promotion for the new 2013 Escape utility vehicle. And last year, it used a similarly integrated Facebook platform to create interest in the new 2012 Explorer utility vehicle.
– GM unfriended Facebook this week, saying that advertising there didn't work. But rival Ford says there's another explanation: GM must be doing it wrong. "It's all about execution," Ford said in a Tweet spotted by the Huffington Post. "Our Facebook ads are effective when strategically combined with engaging content & innovation." In an interview with Forbes, a Ford VP said the company was actually increasing its Facebook advertising, calling it a "growing and critical part of our media mix." "You won't make the right choices if you view Facebook as an advertising network," he explained. "You can’t just pick up advertising that would run somewhere else and put it on Facebook as an ad banner." Another Ford marketing source said GM's decision was "odd" given how young and potentially powerful Facebook is. "Wouldn't you just say to Facebook, 'We're not going to spend as much … in order to earn our business, can we come up with something more clever?'"