Facebook wants you to pay $7 to promote your posts

By Laurie Segall @CNNMoneyTech October 3, 2012: 7:52 PM ET

Facebook's experimental new Promoted Posts feature lets users pay to bump posts up in their friends' newsfeeds.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Is that cat photo you posted on Facebook not resonating? A new feature the company is testing out lets you push Fluffy to the top of your friends' newsfeeds by shelling out cash.

Facebook's experimental "Promote" feature, released on Wednesday to a small group of U.S. users, allows you to pay Facebook (FB) to promote important pictures or announcements. Those who have access to the feature say a promoted post typically costs around $7.

That price tag is part of the experiment: A company spokeswoman said that Facebook is "considering a variety of prices."

A Facebook blog post explaining the new offering features a picture of a recently engaged couple with a new option -- "Promote" -- sitting alongside Facebook's familiar Like, Comment and Share links. The feature was first tested out in New Zealand in May, then expanded to a limited number of users in 20 countries.

Facebook won't say how many U.S. users are now seeing the Promote option, saying only that it's a "limited subset" of the site's 166 million American users. The feature is also restricted right now to those with less than 5,000 friends and subscribers.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/03/technology/social/facebook-promoted...