How good are Facebook’s Promoted Posts?

While investors are still casting a wary eye on Facebook after its IPO letdown, the company isn’t dawdling in its efforts to make more money off its 900 million users. The social networking giant recently rolled out so-called Promoted Posts for brand pages that let businesses pay to have their posts more visible in people’s news feeds. “Promoted Posts help increase the people you reach for any eligible post. It’s an easy and fast way to reach more of the people that ‘like’ your page and your friends,” according to Facebook in a video about the announcement. Brands with more than 400 fans can use the feature, and costs vary by page. “The minimum spend appears to be $5, which can reach between 20 and 2,200 fans, based on different screenshots we’ve seen of the feature,” Inside Facebook’s Brittany Darwell explained. Plus, Facebook is testing “highlighted posts,” where regular users can promote their posts for as low as $2.

But how useful will Promoted Posts actually be when it comes down to it? WebProNews’ Drew Bowling noted that while it sounds like an interesting feature, as of yet it’s producing more questions than answers. “How will the promoted post appear on a follower’s page? How is the pricing scale determined?” he asked. “These are probably things every Page administrator should know before they start throwing money down the big, blue wishing well of Facebook.” Posts can only be promoted for three days. Plus, there’s no guarantee that a promoted post will always appear near the top of newsfeeds, rather than getting buried by other posts. “Unless there’s still some pieces missing to the puzzle of Promoted Posts or I’m simply failing to grasp Facebook’s purpose here, the promoted posts don’t exactly seem like a progressive way for a brand to promote themselves on Facebook,” Bowling wrote. Time Techland’s Keith Wagstaff agreed. “Until we see more examples of people actually being solicited to spend money promoting their Facebook content, it’ll be hard to say whether this is a good idea or if Facebook will even roll it out to the general public,” he wrote. But, he added, it at least shows that Facebook “is serious about chasing other sources of revenue.”

• Facebook Promoted Posts (Sorta) Explained (WebProNews)

• Facebook rolls out ‘promote’ button to more U.S. pages, provides details on how it works (Inside Facebook)

• Facebook Now Letting Users Pay to Promote Their Posts (Time Techland)

• Facebook’s Pay-to-Promote Posts Feature Has Arrived (Gizmodo)

• Facebook’s worst idea yet: Paid post promotion (ZDNet)

• Facebook tests ‘pay to promote post’ tool (BBC News)

• Would You Pay to Promote a Facebook Post? (Washington Post)

• Facebook Tests User Option to ‘Highlight’ Status Updates (PC Magazine)