Want more Attention on Facebook? Pay $2

I once said Facebook had a bunch of attention hungry people. I mean like people who update their status just about every minute, with unnecessary information. “Oh I just had blah blah for lunch.......I am crossing the road now....I am combing my hair.....blah blah blah blah blah”. Well, I sure wasn’t wrong and I guess a bunch of product strategist at Facebook’s Head Office in Palo Alto, shared my opinion.

This is how Facebook works. On an average day, Facebook populates your news feed page with updates (pictures, updates, etc) from your closest Facebook friends, or post that has generated many likes and comments.  Actually, only 12% of your friends get to see your status updates before they get drowned by something trending (e.g Arsenal vs Chelsea’s match). Also, only 16% of news items from businesses pages reach their audience (followers). 

Facebook's Post Highlight Feature

Facebook’s new pay-to-promote feature  allows users to pay a fee of between $0.40 to $2, to scream about “what’s on their minds” for much longerJ. Your status updates can now be highlighted, eye catchy and stick longer in the newsfeed (the Facebook homepage) of all your friends. Unfortunately, this feature is presently available only in New Zealand, where it is being tested and will be available for use worldwide a week to the IPO. Facebook is obviously trying to prove a point before the expected IPO, that the company still has lots of potential ways to generate funds and make profit. This is music to the ears of investors.

While many have criticized this new product, Facebook has argued that this feature will afford users the opportunity to highlight very important post like “I want to sell my car”, “I need a kidney donor urgently”.... pay a fee for it and get almost all their friends to see their update for longer than normal.