Facebook is choking off reach in the news feed, so publishers are
getting more creative with how to get their content in front of
audiences there. One popular method: pay celebrities for sharing it.
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The strategy is the bread and butter of a whole host of lightweight
publishers, but it’s also been embraced by A-list publishers like
Rolling Stone and Slate too, which pay by the click for celebs, as well
as a whole host of other popular Facebook pages, to post their stories.
Some deals take place through influencer media networks while some
celebrities work directly with publishers. In other cases, publishers
add themselves to networks like Contempo and pay only when celebs decide
to share the content.
“There’s a ton of publications that have almost become built solely
on this [distribution mechanism],” said Ken Wohl, the co-founder of
Cybrid Media, a company that helped Elite Daily triple the size of its
Facebook audience.
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Of course, like many “growth hacking” tactics, this one skirts rules.
Facebook requires verified page owners to
disclose any commercial nature of the content posted to those pages, something that these celebs do not do.
And also like many hacks, it’s one that’s attracted competition. In
the past year, a cottage industry of companies like Providr and FanBread
has sprung up that creates content for those same influencers, giving
said celebs a chance to earn much higher returns on their social reach.
These companies, which build scale for the advertisers across the sites,
take a cut of the advertising revenue.
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Everybody realized there was a major arbitrage opportunity, where
publishers could buy traffic from influencers for far less than it cost
to advertise on Facebook.
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Today, sources say that a publisher can still buy a visit to their
website for as little as 1 cent, far less than the cost of buying from
Facebook directly.
http://digiday.com/publishers/facebook-thirsty-publishers-turn-celebrities-worm-news-feed/
http://www.providr.com/
http://fanbread.com/
