The last time we heard about the pay-to-promote feature, it was in its testing phase, and the price for a promoted status ran between free and $2. Gorilla vs. Bear, a music blog, tweeted on Wednesday that these sponsored new feed bumps can cost as much as $100.
Promoting a status update appears to start at $5. We have no official confirmation from Facebook, but it appears the starting price and estimated reach of a paid status placement varies depending on the number of "Likes" a page has.
If you're worried that your Facebook feed will become a spam- and advertisement-filled email inbox, fear not: These paid promotion updates will only show up for fan pages that you already "Like." The paid updates will show up at the top of your newsfeed marked with a “sponsored” tag, however, to indicate that the fan page owner purchased the placement.
As of right now, the Facebook Promotion system appears to be a fairly harmless--if a bit expensive--ad scheme. Hopefully, Facebook keeps its users in mind as it expands its paid placement features.
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