Facebook has started testing a system that lets you pay to highlight or promote posts.
The social networking giant, reportedly, is testing the new "highlight" feature that allows you pay a nominal fee to promote your posts, thereby making those posts more prominent in your friends' news feeds.
Everyone cows that one friend who will spend a little more than everyone else on nights out and is always wearing designer gear, well they can now do it on Facebook too...
What is going on???
According to Digital Trends and Stuff, Facebook is currently testing a new feature that'll allow users to highlight posts by paying a small fee of around $1.80 with Paypal or a credit card. Their status update will then stay stuck at the top of the news feed for a specific amount of time meaning even more people will see it.
"The feature is being trialled and was chanced across by a Facebook user in Whangarei (New Zeland) who initially assumed it might be a scam," reported Stuff. The man form Whangarei said that he was given the option of paying to highlight status updates and picture posts with a yellow background when he came across this new feature.
Facebook spokeswoman Mia Garlick, in a conversation with Stuff, confirmed the tests: "We're constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people's interest in this method of sharing with their friends," she also said, "Facebook was trialling the feature at a range of different price points, including offering it free." This means that during the trial users may be asked to pay different amounts, or nothing at all, to use the new service.
According to The Verge, an American technology website: Facebook last year earned $1.14 billion in revenue, about 85 per cent of which is from ads.
And if Facebook rolls out this new feature to users' profiles, then this would be the first time that the company attempts to make money from posts.
So how does this new feature work then?
Only those who are in the test group will be able to see this feature. On posting a status update, the "Highlight" option will appear next to the Like and comment buttons. If you click, you will be prompted with the (picture below).
As Facebook is testing the feature at a range of different price points, you might have to pay anything fo,,)$0 to $2 to make your posts more visible on the site.
Reportedly, Highlighted posts may appear higher in the news feed and stay visible for a longer period.
Will you guys be opening your wallets to the social network??
Comment and let us know.
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