Facebook is rolling out new features that aim to bring fans closer to their favorite creators, with fan challenges and customized top fan badges. The fan challenges feature will allow creators to prompt their followers with specific challenges. To encourage more engagement, a special challenge hashtag will appear in a leaderboard that ranks submissions based on the number of reactions they receive. This formalizes a trend that has been popular on short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, by creating a dedicated landing page for a creator’s challenges. For example, a cooking creator could celebrate a season by inviting fans to share videos of their favorite recipes. Kalen Allen, a creator with 3.6 million Facebook followers, tested the feature with a challenge about dreams and goals, which yielded about 520 entries. Over the last three months of testing, Meta says fans submitted 1.5 million challenge entries.
Facebook is also allowing creators to customize the “top fan” badges that appear next to the names of users who engage most with their content. So, instead of being designated just a “top fan” of Ed Sheeran, you can be a “Sheerio.” Other celebrities, including Cardi B and J Balvin, have also enabled custom badges.
A Strategic Push for Engagement
These updates show that Meta wants fans to take Facebook more seriously as a platform for engaging with creators. Facebook is generally not regarded as being as creator-centric as its sister platform Instagram, which recently celebrated reaching 3 billion monthly active users. These new features are designed to increase engagement, specifically from actual humans. This is a contrast to another recent move by Meta, which announced it would introduce a Reels-like video feed on its Meta AI app that is composed purely of AI-generated videos. By adding these creator-focused tools, Meta hopes to drive more authentic interaction and community building on the Facebook platform.
Author’s Opinion
These new features signal a clear and strategic attempt by Meta to reposition Facebook as a destination for creator content. By formalizing features that have been successful on other platforms like TikTok, Meta is trying to actively court creators and their communities. This is a pragmatic move to address Facebook’s reputation as a less creator-friendly platform, and it shows that the company is willing to adapt its core experience to compete in a content-driven digital landscape. The move is a recognition that the future of social media isn’t just about connecting with friends and family, but also about building a relationship with the creators and communities you follow. It is an effort to change the narrative around the platform and make it a more dynamic and engaging place for a new generation of users.
Featured image credit: Eyestetix Studio via Unsplash
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