Facebook has started testing a system that lets users pay to highlight or promote posts.
In New Zealand, Facebook is testing a new "pay to promote" system which lets users pay a small fee to make their posts more visible to their friends.
By paying a small fee users can ensure that information they post on the social network is more visible to friends, family and colleagues.
The fees range from a few cents to US $2 and payments are made by credit card or PayPal.
The pay to promote system is an effort to explore additional revenue streams as Facebook prepares for its upcoming IPO.
Facebook did not say how long the test would run or whether they will test in other regions.
Facebook said the goal was to see if users were interested in paying to flag up their information.
Money maker
The spokesperson said some of the methods it was trying out would incur a charge but others would highlight a post for free. The spokesperson would not be drawn on when the test would end or if it would be tried in other territories.
"We're going to see a lot more ideas like this where they are testing out different ways to try to make money," said Ian Maude, internet analyst at Enders Analysis.
Both Facebook's imminent stock market flotation and a recent slowdown in revenue growth were helping to concentrate its attention on ways to make money, he said.
"In the last few years their overall revenue has grown much more quickly than their audience," he said. However, he said, that rapid growth had slowed in the last six months and had perhaps prompted it to experiment.
The flotation will add more pressure, said Mr Maude but he added that the way the stock would be split could lighten that burden a little as Mark Zuckerberg would be left 57% of the shares.
"He's always said he wants to make money to run the company not run the company to make money," said Mr Maude.
