Facebook - Now pay to up your status

Vanilla Gorilla · Oct 5, 2012

Facebook to charge users to ‘promote’ posts to friends

By Jeremy A. Kaplan

Published October 04, 2012

Oct. 4, 2012: Facebook announced an expansion to its "Promoted Posts" program on Wednesday; the site will now let individual users promote stories to their friends. (Facebook)

Facebook wants you to advertise … to your friends.

The world’s largest social network, which announced Thursday that it has crossed the billion-user mark, has struggled to make money from its enormous pool of users. The solution: Turning individual users into advertisers.

“I thought it was a joke at first, to be honest,” explained Cameron Yuill, founder of digital media technology company AdGent. “Now they’re going to charge me $7 to tell my friends something?”

Facebook announced Wednesday that Joe Sixpack will soon be able to ensure that you're reading his messages, thanks to an expansion of the Promoted Posts program, which lets businesses pay anywhere from a few dollars to a few thousand to ensure that hundreds of thousands of Facebookers see your posts.

“As part of a test starting today, people in the U.S. can promote personal posts to their friends on Facebook,” explained Abhishek Doshi, a software engineer, on Facebook’s website. “When you promote a post -- whether it’s wedding photos, a garage sale, or big news -- you bump it higher in news feed so your friends and subscribers are more likely to notice it.”

'[It's] a new low in the network’s accelerating user experience implosion.'

- Mashable writer Matt Silverman

Some tech experts expressed dismay at the idea, fearing an explosion of unwanted content “pinned” to the top of your Facebook page. Others accused Facebook of taking advantage of a situation that it created.

“[This is] a new low in the network’s accelerating user experience implosion,” wrote Matt Silverman on Mashable. He argued that the algorithm that determines which posts show up at the top of your page also determines which posts rarely make it up there -- and the social networking giant is now abusing the algorithm it created, something economists term “artificial scarcity.”

“Essentially, the network is ‘hiding’ your updates from friends, and then turning around to say, ‘Hey, if you want friends to see your updates, you could pay us!’”

“Facebook is rigging the game,” he added.

Representatives of Facebook did not respond to FoxNews.com requests for more information. But other experts said the “big change” was anything but new. Social media sites have been putting your friends to work for years, explained Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research.

“The idea of companies deriving revenue by capitalizing on consumers marketing to other friends is nothing new,” Rubin told FoxNews.com. “There's certainly some risk of members finding promoted posts annoying, but it merely ups the ante for people to think more about how they share,” he said.

Promoted Posts might be the company’s best bet to change the trajectory of its stock, said Yuill. The price of FB sank from an IPO high of $38 to as little as $19; it was trading on Thursday for just under $22.

“This is a simple idea that’s going to be wildly successful,” he told FoxNews.com. “Someone has to pay for the free stuff out there, and if the advertisers aren’t it’s going to be users.”

Facebook said initial testing for the service occurred in New Zealand. Yuill, who is himself from Australia, noted that the choice of venue was an interesting one.

“New Zealand is notoriously tight fisted. If you can get the Kiwis to pay for it, the rest of the world will too!”

What you get for your money remains to be seen, however. Chris Dessi, a social media expert and CEO of Silverback Social, said one recent experiment with promoted posts was far from successful. Sure, it resulted in tremendous traffic -- from Indonesia.

“Why would Facebook promote my post to people in Indonesia?,” he wrote on Social Media Today.

“Looking at my demographics today I can see that Indonesia is in fact, the second most popular country to have liked my page after the USA -- but did they like the page organically or while I was paying Facebook for advertising to grow my Facebook page likes?”

The other issue is cost. How much would you spend to promote a fun run or a charity fund raiser? $7 may cross the line for some, Yuill noted.

“That’s a lot of money to pay to tell your friends something.”

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Now you can pay to be more popular

zombiewolf · Oct 5, 2012

Facebook? Is that still around?

Ely North · Oct 5, 2012

Or you could call your friends and have an actual conversation and tell them anything you want. Or better yet - go knock on their door.

Maelstrom · Oct 5, 2012

Faux News? Yeah, try posting a reliable source.

I'minmyunderwear · Oct 5, 2012

Ely North said:

Or you could call your friends and have an actual conversation and tell them anything you want. Or better yet - go knock on their door.
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well, it would cost a lot more than $7 in gas to get to most of my facebook friends. and talking on the phone is just annoying.

Meliai · Oct 5, 2012

This makes sense for a business. It's just a form of advertising.

But for a regular person? Are there actually people out there that would pay 7 dollars to let their friends know they had eggs for breakfast?

I'minmyunderwear · Oct 5, 2012

Meliai said:

This makes sense for a business. It's just a form of advertising.

But for a regular person? Are there actually people out there that would pay 7 dollars to let their friends know they had eggs for breakfast?
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sadly, i'm sure there are.

really, is it that different from paying so that people hear a horrible song when they call you instead of the standard ringing?

Asmodean · Oct 6, 2012

Aren't there a lot of brands and companies on facebook? So it could make sense. The popularity of facebook makes no sense to me though, I guess that's just me

TheGhost · Oct 6, 2012

Sounds like the desperate beginning of the inevitable end.

I just hope it will be quick.

Death · Oct 6, 2012

facebook will go the way of myspace and something new will come along.

maybe they'll call it "freebook"

Asmodean · Oct 6, 2012

TheGhost said:

Sounds like the desperate beginning of the inevitable end.

I just hope it will be quick.
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That thought crossed my mind as well (since how would users accept such a 'service') but I don't see why if you can ignore it. People just seem to love this medium to share their crap and also think they need it (really!) because they are convinced it's the best/easiest way to share their crap.

absentwithin · Oct 6, 2012

It pure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPWl2karc88"]FACEBOOK FUCKERY - YouTube

Vanilla Gorilla · Oct 6, 2012

It was already the case for businesses of course, the change is now individuals can do it

Jennifer19 · Oct 6, 2012

I'm on facebook everyday. I like being able too see pics of my sister's new art work she lives in grand rapids and pics of my neices and freinds from high school stuff my mom and dad post

deleted · Oct 6, 2012

you would be..

zombiewolf · Oct 6, 2012

Jennifer19 said:

I'm on facebook everyday. I like being able too see pics of my sister's new art work she lives in grand rapids and pics of my neices and freinds from high school stuff my mom and dad post
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What would be wrong with just using e-mail to keep up with family and friends?

deleted · Oct 6, 2012

fakebook ,, its like cave paintings.. everyone can see your business, what you eat, where you work, how you live... and in 1000yrs you look like a bunch of Neanderthals with this dumb ass technology that vanished into oblivion with no trace ..

Go tag a subway tunnel before its to late..

zombiewolf · Oct 6, 2012

orison319 said:

fakebook ,, its like cave paintings.. everyone can see your business, what you eat, where you work, how you live... and in 1000yrs you look like a bunch of Neanderthals with this dumb ass technology that vanished into oblivion with no trace ..

Go tag a subway tunnel before its to late..
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:iagree:

Jennifer19 · Oct 6, 2012

zombiewolf said:

What would be wrong with just using e-mail to keep up with family and friends?
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too me it's easier I don't do email allot of the time

tommyhot · Oct 9, 2012

Ely North said:

Or you could call your friends and have an actual conversation and tell them anything you want. Or better yet - go knock on their door.
Click to expand...

Now you're just being SILLY.

(I'm not on Facebook)

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