Paying to Promote Your Facebook Status: Tempting or Turn Off?

by SodaHead News Posted 2012/05/11 20:00:00

Related Topics: Facebook, Money, status, Advertising, Social Network, Mom, Links, Coffee, the social network

891 votes
Read all 275 opinions
Lightning Report View Results and Demographics + View Demographics

Loading Demographics... Click an icon to see demographic results Display unknown and private
	Tempting	60 votes	7%
	Turn off	831 votes	93%

Have you ever posted an obviously brilliant Facebook status and been disappointed when nobody "likes" it? Or maybe you desperately needed to find a roommate, but couldn't generate interest among your friends. That could be because, according to TechCrunch, your status updates only reach 12% of your Facebook friends. Sucks for you, but it could work out in Facebook's favor. The social network is now offering users the opportunity to "highlight" updates -- that is, get them out to more friends -- for a price.

A test group has been given the ability to promote status updates by clicking a "Highlight" link underneath the status they want to push, right next to the "Like" and "Comment" links. Clicking "Highlight" initiates a pricing and payment window that informs them how much it will be (something like $2) and asks how the user would like to pay. It's unclear exactly how much this feature highlights posts, but it apparently makes them visible to more people for a longer period of time, and pushes it higher up on their news feed. Facebook says it's just an experiment to "gauge people's interest in this method of sharing." So, we've got to ask: are you interested?

+22

Add a comment above

lee 2012/05/11 20:54:05 (edited)

Turn off

+15
how broken does someone have to be to want this?

gives the phrase "attention whore" a new spin...
>> See Replies

More polls by SodaHead News

Pixie·MzAwesome♠ƤĦĂĔŢ♠ 2012/05/12 02:39:56

Turn off

I am never disapointed I have a ton of people that follow me on Facebook I usually get like 20+ likes

reply
zionosp... to Pixie·... 2012/05/12 08:06:45

+1
I like this!

reply
Ishmael 2012/05/12 02:22:03

Turn off

+1
I think this Billie Holliday tune is appropriate to the discussion.

reply
Mog of War 2012/05/12 02:21:19

Turn off

Seriously, I saw this coming from a mile away... I'm just surprised they've taken this long. I guess they've been afraid to come out with it while SOPA and PIPA are still fresh on people's minds.

reply
meme14 2012/05/12 02:19:43

Turn off

+1
I would be embarrassed to pay to have a facebook status highlighted - it looks kind of pathetic..If your post didn't reach enough people..say, if you were looking for a roommate...just time your posting better and repost?

reply
sglmom 2012/05/12 01:58:44

Turn off

+3
Gee .. charging a FEE for those DESPERATELY SEEKING Attention?

Hmm .. hilarious .. but seriously pathetic to take advantage of the DESPERATION of others ..

reply
GLaDOS 2012/05/12 01:54:30

Turn off

I don't require attention.

reply
vdehl 2012/05/12 01:53:19

Tempting

Wish I had the money/

reply
Jrogers 2012/05/12 01:26:49

Turn off

+1
I have too many bills now

reply
TheTruth1313 2012/05/12 01:24:42

Turn off

+1
FB and Zynga seem to be becoming more and more greedy.

reply
RowanWolf 2012/05/12 01:08:40

Turn off

+1
Who the heck would pay to promot there status? Does facebook not make enough money as it is? Plus.. Facebooks getting pretty annoying with the time line and everything else.

reply
safari 2012/05/12 01:03:32

Turn off

+1
If it's that important I will just post it again or periodically

reply
Mike 2012/05/12 00:51:41

Turn off

+1
See ya facebook

reply
HBO 2012/05/12 00:27:24

Turn off

+1
There have been many times when a status of mine has received no "likes" even when I hoped it would. To that I say, Oh, well ! I'll live ! It's not like my statuses are breaking news events or anything. I use Facebook to keep up with family and friends I don't see often. I would never pay anything to promote myself. The only thing I can say is if people set their incoming posts to "recent" instead of top stories, you could see everyones statuses as opposed to whatever they choose to show you in "top stories".

reply
Osaka 2012/05/12 00:17:01

Turn off

+1
You can already promote freely! You can tag groups and fan pages people look at daily.

reply
anne.k.murphy 2012/05/12 00:09:47

Turn off

+1
Oh hell no! I'm popular enough among my fb friends without having to pay for popularity! ;)

reply
Roger P 2012/05/12 00:05:19

Turn off

+3
After one of the originators of Facebook today, renounced his citizenship and moved to another country to avoid paying taxes on the multimillions he makes every year, I think the idea of Facebook charging for ANYTHING is just adding more money to their already ungrateful bank accounts. I believe we all should boycott Facebook and move to a different social network like Hi 5 or Kewibox and tell Facebook to put their money grubbing ideas where the sun don't shine along with their website.
I removed my Facebook page today. I urge other to do the same. I moved mine to Kiwibox for now and told all my 'friends, family and contacts' that if they want to stay in touch on line with me it's that or my private email. I've had enough of their unbridled greed.

reply
cynsity 2012/05/11 23:57:59

Tempting

+1
I could see this for those who have "business" facebook pages. Or for those who have groups with specific activities going on. This could be a way to promote actively without the expense of some other medias.

I wouldn't suggest it for just daily status updates, but for things having to do with business or even if its like a family emergency (say grams had a heart attact and she has a face book page) you could get teh word out to the people most likely to need to know.

reply
GoatHorns to cynsity 2012/05/12 06:55:58

or you could just talk to your family, like a human being

reply
cynsity to GoatHorns 2012/05/12 17:13:44

Family sure but do you know all the phone numbers and names to grandma's bridge group or her bingo club? No and when someone is sick they need to have a steady stream of friends and family (and hell MOST family isn't going drive or fly in till gram turns toes up)

reply
Angecael 2012/05/11 23:32:15

Turn off

+2
Why would I want to promote my Facebook status?

reply
Kigan 2012/05/11 23:06:38

Turn off

+2
Why the hell would anyone want to do this?

What sort of desperation would drive a person to it?

reply
k.l.white1 2012/05/11 22:59:52

Turn off

money would be better spent advertising in a local paper

reply
L1 2012/05/11 22:59:10

Turn off

+1
It IS off and twitter long gone. Real life relationships come first for me.

reply
dennisg40 2012/05/11 22:57:20

Turn off

+1
Facebook is one of the biggest turnoffs to me in the United States. It is like the dot.com days it produces nothing but advertising and to think it is worth billions of dollars is a joke. There is no wonder this country is broke the way people think nowadays.

reply
KrazyMan 2012/05/11 22:46:23
Howling Hank 2012/05/11 22:35:38

Turn off

My ego doesn't need the boost....LOL!

reply
Ranga 2012/05/11 22:33:28

Tempting

I believe

reply
caius madison 2012/05/11 22:32:50

Turn off

+1
That's all that's left before the gates of hell truly open. Paying for something like facebook is just a joke period.

reply
Sister Jean 2012/05/11 22:27:20

Turn off

+2

reply
Karl 2012/05/11 22:14:39

Turn off

+4
It would be nice if the comment was filtered. Posts like OMGZZZ HE TOTALLY JUST BROKE UP WITH ME!!!!!!1!!! I'M GONNA KIL HIMMM!!@!!!111 are not important regardless of whether or not it is highlighted.

reply
Chris D 2012/05/11 22:14:20

Turn off

+5
This will turn facebook into a junk wall - All the marketing people will pay to have their posts surfaced....so that's what you'll see from now on...have fun with that

reply
Yaati to Chris D 2012/05/12 00:28:35

+2
Oh, goodness you're right. This just might be the thing that ends up killing Facebook. Time for some site to do to Facebook what Facebook did to Myspace.

reply
HBO to Chris D 2012/05/12 00:41:02

But wouldn't you have to "like" certain companies in order to see their status, highlighted or otherwise ?

reply
Chris D to HBO 2012/05/12 02:44:08

+1
yup but still just because i like Jimmy Hendrix doesnt mean i want the offers at the top of my news feed every time I go to facebook - it really means you will have to "unlike" these sorts of things

reply
Gunner 2012/05/11 22:07:38

Turn off

+1
FB is getting worse

reply
Beanybudd 2012/05/11 22:05:32

Turn off

+2
Ok, if you really need to find a ride, roommate and so forth, it would be useful. But for people attention whoring, that's supa dupa laaammme.

reply
Seeker of Truth - War Wizard 2012/05/11 22:04:27

Turn off

+2
Seriously?? If people want to read my statuses, that's up to them. I'm not going to pay to push them on my friends.

reply
Lexi 2012/05/11 22:03:50

Turn off

+2
That's pretty cool, if it didn't cost money!

reply
TheNightFly 2012/05/11 22:00:32 (edited)

Turn off

+3
What's a status update? Sounds more like a tweet.

reply