Facebook is now monetizing groups by giving admins the option to implement monthly membership fees.
Subscriptions are currently being piloted with a select number of groups, and may be rolled out more widely depending on user feedback.
Facebook says that subscriptions are being introduced as a way to support group admins who give their time and energy to maintaining communities.
According to the company, admins have been requesting this type of feature.
“We hear from group admins that they’re looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and continue to support their communities. Many admins do this today by creating an additional subscribers-only group that sits alongside their existing group, and rely on additional tools to track and collect payments. Subscription groups were created to make it easier for admins to provide these experiences with built-in tools, and to save them time so they can focus on offering members-only content.”
I can personally vouch for the fact that there are Facebook groups that offer subcribers-only groups off of Facebook. This is usually facilitated through a platform like Patreon, which is designed to let fans support independent creators.
So if money is already exchanging hands for memberships to premium groups, it makes sense that Facebook would want to have these transactions occur on its platform where it no doubt makes a cut of the fees.
Members will be able to sign-up and manage their subscriptions through the Facebook app for iOS and Android.
Expect to see this feature expand and evolve as Facebook learns more about the experience from both members and group admins.
