Facebook has done it-now supporting United State-based political candidates to run their own branded content on its social media platforms.
Political campaigns, groups, and organizations can now use any of the social media company's branded content tools, allowing influencers to clearly tag in an official sub-header that it's a paid partnership by so and so.
The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019.
Why the Sudden Change
It's because of the U.S. Democratic presidential campaign Michael Bloomberg. He paid popular meme accounts on Instagram to post content about the former New York mayor. This, in turn, opened doors for other political candidates to try this out and see where it leads them.
How Effective is it Really
This strategy is slowly paying dividends since it gained traction. Paying social media influencers to advertise their favorite or preferred political candidates really can bring people more to vote since voting in the United States has not really been done by a lot of the masses as of late. Hopefully, this switch in trend and use of Facebook's popularity will give more people the reason to vote on the next presidential election.
"After hearing from multiple campaigns, we agree that there's a place for branded content in political discussion on our platforms," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement.
How Will This Effect the Future of Political Campaigns
Now as effective as this is, it's only one way for hopeful candidates to reach a wider audience, especially the younger generation, with the use of political ads as memes. This clearly resonates with people, especially the younger generation, which presidential-hopeful Michael Bloomberg has shown its effectiveness. The question now is who else would join the bandwagon and are willing to dip their toes in this kind of method.
Read Also: Here's Why Chrome is The Worst Browser To Save Your Passwords
Facebook's Policy Regarding Political Ads vs. Advertising
When politicians pay to boost a post on their Facebook page, the post itself is added to a public ad library. Also, it's designed to create a more transparent outlook on the message that it clearly wants to portray.
Facebook also requires influencers and social media persona to indicate and inform the audience they are showing that what they are doing is a paid publicity or advertisement. Facebook mentioned to BBC earlier on that:
"Branded content is different from advertising, but in either case, we believe it's important people know when they see paid content on our platforms.
"We're allowing US-based political candidates to work with creators to run this content, provided the political candidates are authorized, and the creators disclose any paid partnerships through our branded content tools."
Facebook, the social media mogul, updated its policies for political advertising in the U.S. hemisphere back in 2018 and globally after a year.
As social media is now becoming a clearer platform for people to advertise about the political-campaign in the U.S., when will they allow the rest of the world to follow suit?
Read Also: Fully Autonomous Cars Rolling out to China to Combat Coronavirus
