Meta is launching a new “Professional” mode for user profiles today, aimed at artists wishing to monetise their social media followings. The new model, which will be offered to a limited number of artists in the United States at first, would provide them with extra revenue options and insights that were previously only available to Facebook Pages.
The possibility for creators to participate in the new Reels Play bonus program, where certain artists may earn up to $35,000 per month depending on views for their short-form video content, will be one of them. For the time being, though, this initiative is invite-only, which means Meta will decide which authors are eligible for benefits.
While Meta did not say what other monetization opportunities will be accessible in the coming days, it did say that these artists would have access to professional-level information, similar to what Page owners have.
This provides insights about posts, audiences, and profiles. Creators, for example, will be able to see the total amount of shares, responses, and comments on their articles, as well as track their follower growth over time. This enables businesses to make better, more informed judgments regarding the information they publish and their target audience receives it.
While many producers are already utilizing profiles rather than Pages to garner fans and followers, Meta warns that those who want to participate in this new experience will be making themselves more of a public figure on Facebook. Anyone can follow them and view the public information they have contributed to their feed, but they will be able to label postings as public or friends-only, just like you can on a private profile.
In the meanwhile, creators who use Facebook Pages will switched to the new Pages experience. According to the firm, this will provide admins access to a Professional Dashboard, which will serve as a single location for them to assess the Page’s performance and get professional tools and insights. On Pages, Facebook is also experimenting with a two-step composer, which allows authors to schedule posts and cross-post to a group.
The changes come at a time when Meta is heavily investing in its creator user base, seeing the potential in new revenue streams such as creator subscriptions and virtual tips, dubbed “Stars” — the latter of which it just made available outside of the app stores via a new website where it no longer to pay commissions to Apple and Google.
As the rivalry for creative talent heats up with TikTik and other top social platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, and others, the business has stated that it planned to entice creators with $1 billion in rewards, including Reels bonuses and other incentives. For the time being, the new Professional mode only tested with a small number of creators in the United States, but it will rolled out more widely in the future, including to the EMEA area.
