Facebook has introduced a few updates which will allow public figures to reach new audiences, facilitate engagement, make money and grow their business, and be safe from abuse.
Reaching Audiences
In this internet age of saturated content, public figures of all sorts, whether it be authors, musicians, athletes, and more, regularly post stories on Facebook and Instagram. With Collaborative Stories, multiple public figures can contribute to one story in order to provide followers different views on a given topic or event.
For example, over 20 artists with a combined following of 73 million contributed to the Tomorrowland Story. This meant that followers of one given artist would also view the stories of the other attending artists, thereby widening the reach of the event.
The Chainsmokers (with more than 8M followers on Facebook) saw 92% of their story views come from people who were not yet following them. Meanwhile, artist Martin Solveig (with 1M+ followers) and Jax Jones (with 150,000+ followers) saw similar results, with 97% and 99% of their respective views coming from people who didn’t follow them.
A test in News Feed will also see users come across public figures that they aren’t following, but may be interested in based off of their activity, likes and tags.
Engaging With Communities
Now, with Fan Reply Sticker, followers can respond to a story with a picture or video of their own. Public figures can choose to re-share these pictures or videos back onto the story for other followers to see.
Above are examples, with Afropunk who during and after their festival reposted attendees’ “AFROPUNK outfit pics”, and AC/DC who encouraged video submissions of fans doing Angus Young’s famous “Duck Walk”. Not only is it fun, but it gets the followers involved.
Earn Money and Grow Businesses
Have you ever seen a shirt that you like that your favourite artist is wearing on a picture, video or story? Of course you have, we all have. Well now, Facebook is making it possible for public figures to tag their products in their posts for followers to easily be able to tap on it to learn more information on it.
But it’s not only for clothes, it can be for authors promoting a new book, or a music artists selling tickets for their latest tour, which can all be accessed via “swipe-up” links on Facebook stories.
Facebook Stars is also a new feature that lets fans support their favourite creators during livestreams in the form of stars. But how does sending a star help them in any way? I’m glad you asked.
Above, you can see that fans can purchase a certain number of stars to send to their favourite creators. A good example of how this feature can be used is makeup artist, Braannxo‘s idea to offer rewards to fans with the most stars sent over the course of a week or month.
Safe Interactions
To avoid public figures receiving abuse, Facebook have updated and expanded their policies, updated comment rankings to improve relevance and quality of discussions. New-built tools will also help people distinguish between a fan account and an authentic public figure account.
The launch of the Help Center destination will also help users more easily identify and report suspicious accounts or interactions.
