Facebook is rolling out new tools designed to deepen connections between creators and their fans: fan challenges and customizable top fan badges. The features aim to encourage interaction and make the platform more creator-focused amid competition from Instagram and TikTok.
The fan challenges feature allows creators to prompt followers with specific tasks, such as posting a reel or a photo in response to a theme. Submissions are organized by challenge-specific hashtags and displayed on a leaderboard that ranks entries based on reactions. By formalizing this trend — popular on short-form video apps like TikTok and Instagram Reels — Facebook is creating a dedicated space for fans to actively participate in creators’ content.
For instance, the platform suggests a cooking creator could celebrate fall by inviting fans to share videos of recipes featuring butternut squash. Kalen Allen, a creator with 3.6 million Facebook followers, tested the feature with a challenge asking fans to make videos about their dreams and goals, generating around 520 entries. Meta reports that, during testing, fans submitted 1.5 million challenge entries over three months.
In addition, Facebook is giving creators the ability to customize top fan badges — the markers that appear next to highly engaged users’ names. Fans no longer need to be just a generic “top fan” of a celebrity; for example, Ed Sheeran’s followers could be labeled “Sheerios.” Other artists like Cardi B and J Balvin are also using the badges to personalize fan recognition.
Historically, Facebook hasn’t been seen as a creator-first platform in the same way as Instagram, which recently hit 3 billion monthly active users. It has often been more associated with local news, community discussions, or viral oddities. With these updates, Meta appears determined to make Facebook a more interactive space where fans can actively engage with creators’ content — this time, with genuine human participation rather than AI-driven feeds.
The rollout follows last week’s announcement that Meta will introduce a Reels-like video feed in its Meta AI app, composed entirely of AI-generated videos, signaling the company’s broader strategy of blending human engagement with emerging technology.
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