Dive Brief:
- Facebook will now allow users with Verified Profiles — typically actors, athletes, musicians and social influencers — to share branded content, with the stipulation that the content shared adheres to the social media platform’s branded content policy, according to Variety.
- New rules were put in place regarding branded content in April, and at the time only applied to Verified Pages, not individual profiles.
- The extension of the policy to individual profiles could result in increased revenue for Facebook, as it is likely that marketers sponsoring branded content will pay to promote those posts. Facebook doesn’t get a cut of the original sponsored posts' revenue from Verified Profiles.
Dive Insight:
Facebook is becoming one of the few major platforms tightly regulating influencer marketing, a move that looks good from a transparency perspective and also helps boosts Facebook's effort to expand its monetization strategy.
Influencer marketing continues to hold massive appeal for digital marketers despite questions around measuring its success, as it can be a great way to reach socially engaged young demos. But a lack of widespread standards and regulations has lead the FTC to actively crack down on brands using influencers who fail to disclose they're running advertisements, and other groups have been advocating for even more stringency, especially regarding campaigns targeting children.
Facebook’s move further incentives brands and influencers alike to make proper disclosures. The FTC might not necessarily take dramatic action against any one individual or influencer campaign that runs afoul of its guidelines, but both marketers and their promoters could face sanctions from Facebook for violating its policies, which could seriously hurt revenues given the platform's tremendous reach.