The New Price of Self Promotion in Social Media

Yesterday, Facebook announced that it now has one billion active users. This is a phenomenal accomplishment, as it means Facebook monthly users represent 44% of all internet users and 14% of the entire work population. Most significantly, the average age of a Facebook user (22 years to 23 years) is a desired demographic for advertisers. This said, Facebook’s announcement on its monthly user volume, overshadowed an announcement of an expansion of its “Promoted Posts” program. (This, of course, is an effort to generate more revenue as market capitalization has slipped dramatically since the IPO.)  This program will allow users to promote their posts to their friends for a fee. Tests of the program, outside of the United States, have been inconclusive. Facebook seems to feel that, in an age of self promotion, users will be willing to pay to put themselves at the top of their friends list. When one can, by the click of the button, circumvent current algorithms to get a chronological feed of postings that a friend might see, it requires a certain excess of vanity (and cash) to pay to assure that you are at the top of the heap.



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