Facebook-thirsty publishers turn to celebrities to worm into the news feed

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/