Celebrities. They’re really not like the rest of us. And Facebook is confirming that by developing a new “celebrities only” app that will allow the famous and beautiful to manage their Facebook interactions with fans more easily.
According to a report from Mike Isaac in AllThingsD, Facebook is in the early stages of testing a platform targeted towards celebrities in order to compete with Twitter, which is currently the go-to place to interact with over-sharing celebrities.
“We are currently testing some mobile features designed to help public figures interact with their fans,” a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD. “We are testing these features with a small group of partners and will share more details should we roll it out more widely.”
The new app will make it easier for celebs to post pictures, respond directly to fan messages and share their thoughts, especially via mobile.
Before you get all mad at some sort of perceived elitisim, you should know that Twitter has already been doing this for a while, with a dedicated team of celebrity handlers who encourage them to use the platform and educate them on “best practices.” Once again, Facebook, despite having far more users, is playing a game of marketing catch up.
However, its definitely a huge opportunity for the company. Celebrities draw users and the Facebook platform is far more conducive to sharing visual content that Twitter. Plus, it has Instagram on its side.
It’s not inconceivable to see other big social media platforms following the trend. LinkedIn could start targeting the celebrities of the business world, which means a lot more big-name CEOs or entrepreneurs could be actively pursued when it comes to sharing content online. The only question remains, between introducing new features for advertisers and marketing to celebrities, is Facebook doing enough to innovate for its actual users?
