ARE THERE STILL CELEBRITY-INFLUENCERS ON FACEBOOK?
When it comes to active users, Facebook remains the number 1 social media platform with about 2.498 billion monthly active users while it’s message App – Facebook messenger, follows closely behind with monthly active users of about 1.003 billion. As it is commonly said, ‘you can find anyone on Facebook’. Youngsters would first obtain a Facebook account before seeking out any other social media platform – an excellent advantage for influencers to say the least. Yet, on our research journey, Decritic finds a lot of celebrity-influencers inactive or absent on Facebook. Like you, we asked ‘are there still celebrity-influencers on Facebook?’
It all started with the 5000 Facebook friends limit. Facebook was created as a platform where people can connect and keep in touch with real friends and family. Most people had no problem with it, because come to think of it, how many real friends can one have? But no, for public figures, they have many more friends than Facebook would allow. They complain that though they have Facebook pages for their fans and followers, they get frustrated when they have to choose which friends and family to keep and those to let go on their wall. Slowly the drift began before Facebook could realise.
Over the years, celebrity-influencers had to battle with impersonators and hackers. Facebook security measures were slow to the rescue, not to mention the privacy breach. In their defence, Facebook representatives said that those accounts did not violate the company’s s impersonation policies. Although many users created fan pages of their favourite celebrities, many more tried to impersonate them. The ease at which this is done created a huge challenge for many celebrity-influencers – the hate-speech from swindled fans, the identity struggle, the lost of trust, and so on. No wonder Debo Adebayo (Mr Macaroni) recently released a comedy skit titled ‘it’s not me o’ to warn his fans against impersonators. Many more faced the same problems – Ini Edo, Akon, Oluremi Tinubu, BasketMouth, AY, etc.
It doesn’t matter if it is a white or black celebrity, they all dance the same music. Kip Moore alone recently discovered at least 28 impersonations. Women who divorced their husbands came presenting divorced papers and demanding to know why he suddenly stopped chatting with them. Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Neymar and many others, all have their tales to tell.
Unlike other social media platforms, Facebook is a platform that is embraced by all generations. It creates a better opportunity to connect with families and friends. But many influencers don’t share in that enthusiasm. Some believe it is now a platform for the old. But stats show otherwise – it is a platform enjoyed by the young and the old.
So, are there still celebrity-influencers on Facebook? With the global social media market share possessed by Facebook, the platform is very hard to ignore. Few Celebrities still keep the faith – Omoni Oboli, Will Smith, Trevor Noah, etc, and many other celebrity brands. However, a whole lot of celebrities fail to utilize Facebook, knowing it is a platform of real social friends; a platform where engagement is very fast and quick and mostly positive unlike negative Twitter and laid-back Instagram. Besides, the followership on Facebook is mostly real and organic unlike Instagram (never mind Instagram is still owned by Facebook). Many celebrity-influencers ran to Instagram, but impostors should not separate them from their real friends and genuine followers who are waiting for them on Facebook. No, they should come home.
49 Responses
I joined Facebook back in August 2010 solely to keep in touch with family and friends. Having a celebrity influence my choice of platforms was never on the table and it hasn’t changed.
Lately, I have become more active on Twitter. My choice of Twitter was because it’s often more engaging and trendy. Some Twitter discussions still manage to find their way to Facebook.
I’m also on Instagram but I’m rarely there.
I do not follow any celebrity on any of the 3 platforms. A lot of them do not represent my innermost convictions.
It’s just a case of different strokes for different folks.
Facebook connects you to family, friends, colleagues, church members. Et cetera.
Twitter lets you know about trending issues and it’s often toxic and not for the faint of heart.
Instagram has a celebrity appeal where users compete for class and glamour.
Facebook is often the first point of entry into the Social Media Networks.
Well, to me if I want to relate with family and friends I go to facebook but to get the entertainment of social media I go to Instagram and Twitter 😉that is where the celebrities put their shows on. Like you said Instagram, Twitter and all have large followings unlike Facebook and that’s what people want. But recently I got introduced to another part of Facebook which is quite interesting and I explore often.
Truth?
If I say I understand all these celebrity influencing things, I lie. What I know, Facebook is my most active social network currently.
A while ago though I lost interest completely in Facebook but I discovered recently that Facebook has more than one knows( maybe it’s a new development who knows 🤷)…
So I think if it’s relevant to them, they could seek for more followership using the medium they wish. Me, I’m kuku not a celebrity, the 1k+ ‘friends’ I have sef, I’m looking for a way of trimming the list down….
Who has that much friends though?🤷
Facebook will always remain the go-to platform for many. A lot of celebrities and public figures claim to have friends that exceed the 5k limit.
Facebook is definitely the realest of them all. Although I am more active on Instagram and Twitter, I know my real friends are on Facebook. Nice one Nenye!
Thank you Maama. Facebook has always encouraged connecting with real friends and family. That is one of its unique attributes.
I think Facebook remains the GOAT of all social media platforms it has all types of people all round. I’ve been off facebook for a while but i still think its the best social media there is.
Thanks Ibrahim. I am sure many other people share your enthusiasm for Facebook. Facebook is indeed unique.
Facebook is cool, but i think most it’s engagement reduced due to newer generations thinking it’s old school for some sort of reason, but undoubtedly the app is still relevant becos it is easy to find anyone there..
Thanks Kachi. I totally agree with you.
Facebook, for me, remains one of the best social media platforms. You can wake up one day and find a long lost contact on your people you may know list. It’s magical😄.
Celebrity influencers however, don’t really pay much mind to Facebook as most active social media users are beginning to prefer IG and Twitter gives room for trends which the influencers capitalize on to make broadcasts.
This is good to hear. Facebook has its advantages for both influencers and everyday users. Many are yet to realize it.
I am still on Facebook but not an active user.
I sidelined it because most of my close friends aren’t using it anymore.
I mostly use the Facebook live to livestream my church service on Facebook
Thanks Gbadebo. A lot of Millennials lost interest in the Facebook platform when they found out that their favorite celebrities weren’t there anymore and many left to avoid family members.
Yeah, i see Facebook as a platform to meeting old and new friends but the fact that it less secured and can be easily hacked into baffles me a lot, but not withstanding it still a platform to reckon with
Thank you Kayode. These problems should really be taken serious by Facebook.
Nice work
Thank you Thanos.
I still see Facebook as a platform to meeting old friends… In my own view, I feel Facebook already made it’s Mark and Influencers tends to move towards Instagram cause of Paid-Contents which slightly edges that of the Facebook platform… So there you have it.
Thank you Anthony. A wonderful insight.
I’m as much as Facebook is still widely used, I actually don’t know how to use the app. Probably because of my view that it’s an old people’s app. All the same, it’s still similar to Instagram but Facebook is a better app to connect to old friends. Probably because it was well known before Instagram took over.
Nice article 👍🏾
Thanks Moyo. Facebook has added a lot of new features over the years so there are a lot of things to be discovered. For example, the audience targeting when creating an Ad is very detailed on Facebook and better than that of Instagram.
It couldn’t be explained any better, nice work. Facebook is widely accepted because of its accessibility and easy to go on with. They find a way to link you up with people you just had a phone call with (which is really intriguing). So influencers know they can actually capture a Much better percentage of real human beings than other platforms.
A wonderful insight Emmanuel. Thank you. One of the upside of Facebook.
Nice critic. The influencers should make proper use of Facebook. Keep it up
Thanks Ireka. I believe they should.
Nice critique. Facebook is likened to a wholesale store. We find who we need and move the chats to easy to use platforms like whatsapp. Regardless, facebook still maintains its relevance bot for the young and the old.
Thank you cornelius. Different apps do have their strong weak points.
I still is rep Facebook. It’s easy to use and incorporates all media aspects, photo, videos, messenger and text, making it a media for all types of persons. It’s still a go-to media for target marketing, having inordinate amount of user data.
Thank you Samwunmi. A good analysis.
Nice piece Chinenye…keep it up
Thank you Chinedu.
Nice write up Nenye…I will liken Facebook to the nuclear family and no matter how far we go; we will always go back to the road that leads us home
Such an apt comparison Rita. Thank you. I believe there are many people who also feel the same way.
Well, thing is for all the way people talk about Facebook being old school yen yen yen, they still keep their Facebook accounts and get there once once sha and since it still has this staggering numbers it can’t actually be ignored. Might just take a while to u know get ahead in terms of active daily participation like the others. Like u said the mistakes made by slow response and ineptitude to needs of these influencers only sunk the enthusiasm of these influencers further but same mistakes help them build better systems like IG. So yeah I guess face book still plays its role in the chain of things.
In-depth analysis you have here Nenye! Still only on facebook, maybe because I believe it is more real than others. But some of the celebrities that are off it have their reasons.
Thank you Ada. Facebook is one platform that really connects family and real friends so what you get mostly is positive energy.
At the end, Facebook remains more organic and personal. Maybe Celebrities want to stay clear from their families. They do not see the big picture like Will Smith.
Nicely put Godwin. I believe they have their various reasons. However, those who understand the dynamics of Facebook are leveraging on it.
Fantastic read. I recently moved on to twitter and linkedin from facebook and instagram because I was convinced the later platforms were saturated with frivolities.
I have however had to retrace my steps to Facebook because of it’s ability to extend my tentacles to places I never thought possible to reach.
Thank you for sharing your experience Ifeanyi. The advantages of Facebook are still yet to be known and understood by many.
I really love this write up and learnt a lot from it. I think influencers are going back to revisit Facebook because of the engaging numbers.
Well done Chinenye. I always look forward to your write ups
Thank you Deborah, keeping you informed and engaged is what we do. When it comes to numbers, Facebook definitely has the upper hand.
Nice writeup dear. Facebook is still an amazing platform, you can connect back with old friends and family. I guess I ran away from it to avoid embarrassing comments from my family😀
Thanks Chiemelie for sharing your experience. Its quite a funny one. I believe many people have similar experiences.
Nice piece. Paid-contents give Instagram an edge compared to Facebook that’s why influencers prefer it.
Thanks Adesina. Instagram really does have an edge but it doesn’t necessarily have to be one or the other.
This is true. Well captured. Recently, the same problems are showing up on Instagram, but the Influencers will not be leaving Instagram anytime soon because of paid-contents.
Thanks Christine. That is one of the advantages of Instagram. But they really don’t need to leave. they can conveniently create a Facebook account and connect it to the already existing one on Instagram. That way they can run two accounts on different platforms simultaneously.