Is Facebook Starstruck? Evidence Shows Site May Be Following Twitter’s Lead With Celebrities

More and more celebrities are using their Facebook fan pages to interact with followers. According to AllThingsD.com, the uptick in posts from some of Hollywood’s most popular personalities is not a coincidence.

The technology news site reports that the increase in celebrity activity is part of Facebook’s strategy to bring more stars to the site.

“Facebook has been ramping up its efforts to get more famous people using the site,” writes AllThingsD.com’s Peter Kafka, “In recent months it has bulked up a global team tasked with courting and hand-holding stars; in some cases, it offers incentives for those who post.”

Facebook remains the most popular social media site worldwide, with GlobalWebIndex reporting in January that 63 percent of global Internet users have a Facebook account.  While Facebook continues to dominate, Twitter is proving to be the fastest growing social media site, adding 288  million users last year, with 21 percent of the worldwide population now users.

With such explosive growth, it’s not surprising that Facebook keeps following Twitter’s lead, adding features like hashtags, verified accounts, and today’s newly announced trending topics.

AllThingsD.com claims it’s all part of Facebook’s plan to gain more “public” content so that users not only correspond with each other, but use the site more often to consume a broader variety of content. Facebook executive Justin Osofsky is quoted in the report, saying the new initiative towards more “public” content doesn’t stray from Facebook’s original mission, but instead will help the site, “unlock and surface the conversations about shared interests that’s already happening.”

Beyond the new initiative for more “public” content, AllThingsD.com referenced new hires on the Facebook team that works with celebrities, taking the staff from four to more than ten employees. One of the new hires includes Glenn Miller, a former digital strategist at the CAA talent agency.

Currently, some of the most popular celebrities on Facebook include Rihanna, Eminem, and Michael Jackson, who four years after his death still has more than 62 million Facebook fans.

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About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.