Facebook Working On New VIP App Strictly For Celebs [Rumor]

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Facebook is reportedly working on a brand new app that’ll be strictly for celebrities. The app will allow the famous to better interact with fans in the hope that more will be encouraged to use the social network for sharing. It’s currently in testing with a small group of famous people, according to sources familiar with the project.

The app will be part of Facebook’s efforts to compete more directly with Twitter, which seems to be more popular with celebrities thanks to its more “public” sharing features. Fans are able to follow their favorite stars without actually having to “friend” them, which makes it easier for celebs to share their latest news with those who want to hear it, and then monitor their feedback and get involved in the chatter.

AllThingsD explains how the VIP service works:

The idea: If a star pushed out a status update to fans that caused a rather large amount of chatter — like, say, Kobe Bryant’s late-night torrent of scattered thoughts from a few months ago — the new app would make it easier to see the swirling commentary from fans, and mix it up with them.

Facebook hopes the move will lead to more celebrity engagement, but the company is keeping quiet about the details for now.

“We are currently testing some mobile features designed to help public figures interact with their fans,” a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD. “We are testing these features with a small group of partners and will share more details should we roll it out more widely.”

Facebook has previously tried to encourage celebrity engagement by working with stars on “best practices” for its social network, and the new app will make sharing news, thoughts, photos and more much easier. But it seems the company has a long way to go before it can compete with Twitter in this area.

Source: AllThingsD

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