Los Angeles — Are you popular enough on Facebook? Do you feel your posts on the popular social networking site sometimes get lost in the crowd? Well, the social media outfit Facebook is currently experimenting on a new feature dubbed as “promoted status update” in New Zealand, but users will have to pay to highlight their own posts.
The novel experimental feature was first uncovered by prominent news site Stuff.co.nz and also confirmed by the BBC. After logging into his Facebook account, the user reportedly received a message asking if he wanted to pay 1.80 in New Zealand dollars ($1.42) to highlight an important post to make sure his friends would see it.
The feature is called “Highlight,” and it empowers users to highlight “important posts” in order to make sure more friends see it, according to the Stuff report.
“We are constantly experimenting with new features across the site,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email. “This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.”
Moreover, the message gave him a choice of paying via credit card or PayPal. The user initially thought the message might be a scam. Also, Facebook representatives informed the magazine that the offer was being made at different price points, in order to determine which were most attractive to consumers. The highlighted posts place the status update and the photo against a yellow background.
But while this may be the first time Facebook has let its users promote posts, it has permitted brands to do so for years, albeit more subtly. A similar functionality to this recent tests already exists namely Facebook’s Sponsored Stories program for brands (where companies can pay to promote already-existing stories for increased visibility), the new Highlight feature is not for brand pages–it is for you, the average user. Not seeing enough likes on one of your witty statuses? Highlight it. Have an important announcement to make and want the right people to comment on it? Highlight it. Fishing for compliments through copious amounts of vaguebooking? Highlight that sucker.
Furthermore, as you can see from the fun little credit card icons in the above image, “highlighting” your witty status probably would not be free. Test users are seeing credit cards and PayPal as options for payment, but not Facebook credits. However, there is a free version of Highlight floating around out there–which is allowing Facebook to gauge interest in the possible feature.
From a business perspective, Highlight is just another way to monetize Facebook. Besides, the timing of this new feature is perfectly captivating as it comes just when Facebook is gearing up to go public. As the company currently makes most of its money on advertising, this could be one way of testing the waters to see whether people would pony up cash for special features.