Facebook Considering Monetization of Posts Using “Tip Jars”

A Facebook user survey distributed this week has shown the social media giant is looking at ways for users to be able to profit from their posts according to The Verge. Some of the features being considered that would allow for the monetization of posts or the ability to promote your posts include a tip jar, branded content and even the ability to take a cut of Facebook’s ad revenue from your posts. Another idea that users were asked for their opinion was a “call to action” button which would let followers make donations and a “sponsor marketplace” which would allow users to match themselves with providers of related advertisements.

Currently, Facebook includes no avenues for individual users to earn money from the posts they make on Facebook, although publishers have been able to sell advertisement space inside of their Instant Articles format and brand sponsored posts are able to be shared on verified pages. Facebook is also testing new (and possibly intrusive) ways to introduce ad revenue into content on the site.

A number of social sites already offer ways in which users and content creators can profit from the ad revenue that their content generates, with YouTube allowing channel owners to earn money based on the views of monetized videos and the game streaming service Twitch partnering with popular streamers to allow them to earn money from subscriptions, running advertisements and merchandise sales. It is likely that Facebook, which values itself on real-time sharing, has seen the success of these programs and wants to offer their users a chance at earning money in the hopes it will draw more people to post higher quality content on the site.

When you consider the huge valuations of social media sites, the fact that very few of their users are paid for the content that contributes to it, it makes sense to offer some kind of reward schemes for top contributors, lest they migrate to other platforms in time. Whether this move to monetization could improve or worsen Facebook remains to be seen, as the plans are only conceptual. The questions regarding monetization are just a small portion of the survey focusing on users use of their profile pages, what they share and the makeup of their friends on the site.