Facebook Encourages Influencer Marketing With New Tools

Facebook has introduced new tools to further encourage influencer marketing on the platform. These new features are designed with collaboration in mind, from post creation to amplification.

Brands are now able to boost a sponsored post as soon as it appears on the creator’s page. In the past, the only way to do this was to share the message first. Once an influencer creates a post, they simply have to tag the brand and grant them permission to boost it by checking a box.

Boosted posts will appear to a marketer’s target audiences in its original form—posted by the influencer—as opposed to a shared post by the brand itself. To ensure brand safety, marketers can choose which creators are allowed to tag them in sponsored posts and authorize them through Page Settings.

Of course for marketers, fancy options are nothing without results. In fact, “Metrics” was named the top pain point for influencer marketing by brands in a recent study.

Facebook has updated the Branded content tab in both Page Insights and Business Manager to include separate summaries of total spend and CPM, from both the creator and marketing on each post and detailed tools-tips and explanations.

Introduced last year, Facebook’s “paid” label was recently made available to unverified Pages to attract more influencer collaboration. Adding “paid” labels make it easy for brands and influencers to remain transparent about their partnerships, per FTC regulations.

Fresh off a record-breaking second quarter, Facebook is two billion users strong and the second-largest ad seller in the world after Google. Reaching the right audiences in such a crowd can be a challenge, to say the least—which is why partnering with a brand soulmate could mean the difference between shouting over two billion voices or letting audiences hear your message through someone they’re already listening to.

Facebook is not only the largest social network, but it was named the most important platform for influence marketers in a recent study. The platform is preferred by influencers as well—according to July 2016 research, 32 percent of US creators who currently work with brands cite Facebook as the best platform for influence marketing, making these new tools a welcome addition.