Meta Outlines New Opportunities for Reels Creators via Facebook Stars Donations

As part of its announcement of expanded monetization options for creators earlier this week, Meta noted that it will be opening up its Facebook Stars creator donation process to all eligible creators ‘so that more people can start earning from their Reels, live, or VOD videos’.

Now, Meta has provided more insight into how Reels creators, specifically, will be able to earn Stars donations, which up till recently had only been available to gaming streamers in its apps.

As per Meta’s new outline, Reels creators who meet these new requirements will now be able to accept Stars donations for their Reels clips.

• Have maintained at least 1,000 followers over the last 60 days
• Are operating in one of the following markets: US, Philippines, Canada, Mexico, UK, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, France, Peru, Malaysia, Brazil, India, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Belgium, Chile, Australia, Argentina
• Complies with Meta’s Partner Monetization Policies and Content Monetization Policies

Meta reiterates that it’s planning to expand Stars on Reels to all creators using Stars in the coming months, but this is the current starting point for gaining access to the option.

In addition to this, and in order to help raise awareness of Stars as a donation option to support your favorite creators, Meta is also bringing back its Stars Fest event – ‘a month-long celebration that began June 15th and will run through July 15th to recognize Stars creators’.

“We’ll have a Stars sale, limited-time virtual gifts and badges for people who send more than 500 Stars, new educational content, a week of creator programming and a bonus opportunity that multiplies Stars earnings for select Stars on Reels creators.”

As part of this, Meta’s also launching a new #StarsEverywhere competition, which will give creators who start using Stars the chance to win $1,000 by adding the #StarsEverywhere hashtag to their posts during Stars Fest.

With Reels being the fastest-growing content format across Meta’s platforms, it’s keen to provide more opportunities for more creators posting Reels to the app, in order to better incentivize participation, and keep them from drifting off to TikTok instead. Which is why it’s also expanding its Facebook Reels Play bonus program to all US-based creators, and testing new ways for creators to earn money on both Instagram and Facebook with crossposted content.

“For instance, Reels crossposted from Instagram to Facebook may be eligible to earn revenue share from overlay ads on Facebook, which we are rolling out around the world in many markets, as well as for the Facebook Reels Play Bonus program.”

Meta will soon also enable creators to use its ‘Paid Partnerships with’ label for branded content on Facebook Reels, and allow sponsors to easily convert those clips into Branded Content Ads.

In combination, these could provide significant earnings potential for savvy Reels creators, and again, keep them from moving off to TikTok instead, which is the trending app of the moment, but doesn’t offer the same level of monetization as Meta and YouTube can, on a broader scale.

TikTok is still developing its monetization systems, and right now, this is a key weak point that Meta and YouTube are looking to exploit, which could eventually become a bigger problem for TikTok, if top stars realize that they would be better served focusing on their apps instead.

That’s not to say TikTok won’t work it out, but amid rising challenges, and creator frustration over shrinking payments, this will be a key battleground for social media dominance over the next year.