Facebook is introducing new tools aimed at connecting fans more closely with their favorite creators: fan challenges and personalized top fan badges.
With the fan challenges option, creators can encourage their audience to take part in specific tasks. Fans can join in by creating a reel or post in response. To boost participation, a special challenge hashtag will be featured on a leaderboard, ranking entries based on the number of reactions they receive.
Such challenges have already gained traction on short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, where users often join in on dance trends or remix popular audio clips. Facebook is now turning this trend into an official feature by launching dedicated pages for individual creators’ challenges.
Image Credits:Meta
For instance, Facebook proposes that a cooking creator could mark the autumn season by asking followers to upload videos of their favorite butternut squash recipes.
Kalen Allen, who has 3.6 million followers on Facebook, piloted this feature by inviting fans to submit videos about their aspirations and dreams, resulting in around 520 submissions. According to Meta, fans have sent in 1.5 million challenge entries over the past three months during the testing phase.
Additionally, Facebook now lets creators personalize the “top fan” badges that appear next to the names of their most engaged followers. So rather than simply being labeled a “top fan” of Ed Sheeran, you might be called a “Sheerio,” if you prefer. Other stars, such as Cardi B and J Balvin, have also adopted these custom badges.
Facebook hasn’t typically been seen as a creator-focused platform like Instagram, which recently reached 3 billion monthly active users. Instead, it’s often where people catch up on local news in neighborhood groups or stumble upon quirky AI-generated content.
These new features indicate that Meta is encouraging fans to view Facebook as a more serious space for interacting with creators.
The updates are intended to boost engagement—this time, focusing on real users. Just last week, Meta revealed plans to add a Reels-style video feed to its Meta AI app, which will showcase only AI-created videos.
