Facebook is rolling out options for advertisers to pay to "sponsor" comments people make about businesses, places or products at the world's largest online social network.

A Sponsored Stories tool allows advertisers to take "word of mouth recommendations and promote them" to eye-catching notices on Facebook user pages, engineers at the firm said in an online video Wednesday.

"It's not a message saying you should buy this thing or you should come to this website," an engineer said in the Facebook Marketing Solutions video. "It's your friend saying 'Look, I did this and I want to tell you about it.'"

Sponsored Stories are updates or location check-ins that Facebook members post to be seen by friends and are only shared with those in a person's chosen circle of contacts at the online community.