What do you do when you’re one of the largest tech giants out there, losing the eyeball-fight to your rivals? You wave a wad of cash, of course. Meta is offering larger influencers, active on other platforms, $3,000 a month to post on Facebook.

Three thousand dollars is indeed a solid chunk of money. But you’ll get it only if you have amassed over a million followers on other video-first social media platforms like Meta’s own Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.

You’ll also have to prove that a million users are following you, and post at least 15 reels, or short videos, a month. Creators in the program can earn $1,000 per month if they have at least 100,000 followers on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.

The offer is part of Facebook’s new Creator Fast Track program for “established creators who are new to or discovering Facebook,” which is currently available only in the United States and Canada.

“We’ve heard from creators who have built followings on other platforms about how daunting it can feel to start fresh on Facebook, so we’re introducing the Creator Fast Track program to simplify and accelerate their start,” said Facebook in a news release.

According to the social network, creators in the program will receive increased reach on eligible reels to help speed up their follower growth and three months of guaranteed pay for sharing eligible reels on Facebook.

The move reeks of desperation but isn’t illogical: Facebook simply needs to do something as it’s severely lagging behind rival platforms, especially TikTok. Plus, reels are now extremely valued by the bean counters.

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That’s because short-form video is now the fastest-growing content format, driving higher engagement, allowing for better ad monetization, and boosting visibility for creators.

Reels were launched – first on Instagram in 2020, then on Facebook a year later – as a direct response to TikTok's popularity, aiming to regain younger users.

The problem is that for the young, Facebook is just not cool anymore, and it’s been that way for years now. The platform is most popular among over-35s: younger users simply think it’s “dead” or too mainstream.

So even if creators take Meta’s money and start posting regularly on Facebook, their followers won’t necessarily follow them. If the content is similar, why bother indeed?

Plus, as Jordan Schwarzenberger, manager of content creators called The Sidemen, put it to the BBC, $3,000 a month for 15 reels amounts to $200 per video. To some creators, this wouldn’t even cover production costs.

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