Facebook is going after famous people. Well, in terms of product development and deployment, anyway. The company launched an unapologetic app for celebrities called Facebook Mention.
The Mentions app is for famous people in particular. It is now available only on Apple's iOS operating platform for iPhones and iPads.
According to a recent report, the app will let users see what fans are saying about them in a dedicated feed, aptly called Mentions, and offer a mobile capability of starting a Q&A. The top of notification pages will reportedly populate with comments and exclamations from other celebrities and famous people.
Famous people who use Facebook can respond to their fans in real time or at a later date upon seeing the notifications. If something interests them, annoys them, overjoys them or saddens them, the celebrity can respond back.
According to another report, the app is specifically set to identify public figures like athletes, music stars and politicians or other government officials. Facebook seems to want celebrities and other famous types to be able to manage social media communication with their fans easier.
The company said that around 800 million people are connected to famous people on Facebook and it believes that is important to keep strong connections between people and their idols. The app only works for people who have verified public figure pages on Facebook.
Updates from other famous people also are included in Mentions functionality, according to a report. Some have compared the move to the popularity of Twitter among celebrities and famous people. They believe the company is aiming at impressing the elites in hopes of converting them to Facebook users.
The app is only available in the United States. it's one of two new apps Facebook is debuting, as it is also testing a new e-commerce function. The company has added a "buy" button that appears in ads via newsfeed. Users will be able to click buy, make a purchase and not have to leave the social network at all. Many also believe the company took its cue from Twitter's experiments with this same concept.
Facebook also announced that in addition to the 800 million connections to famous people, it also said that more than a billion interactions take place every week among them. Reports indicate that some have already started using the app. They include Whoopi Goldberg, Mariah Carey, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Arianna Huffington, Austin Mahone, Rachel Zoe, Nick Kristof and Bill Nye (as in the "Science Guy"). Facebook claims now that the content activity on those famous users' accounts has doubled since before the release of Mentions.
