Facebook introduces new fan challenges and custom top fan badges to connect creators and followers

Facebook

Meta has announced new features on Facebook designed to strengthen ties between fans and creators. The platform is rolling out fan challenges, enhanced top fan badges, and discovery tools aimed at making fandom more interactive and rewarding.

With fan challenges, creators can now launch prompts that encourage their followers to create and share content around specific themes. Challenges appear in the feed when launched by a creator, and fans can join by clicking on the challenge hashtag on posts, reels, or other entries.

Entries that gain the most reactions appear on a leaderboard, which serves as a central hub to discover fan submissions and interact with other participants. According to Meta, more than 1.5 million challenge entries were submitted in the past three months, generating over 10 million comments and reactions. Creators can use these challenges to boost engagement, amplify campaigns, and activate new communities around their work.

Facebook is also updating its top fan badge system. Fans who frequently engage with a creator’s content can earn a badge, which is displayed next to their comments and can also be showcased on their own profiles.

The new update brings personalized badges, allowing creators to offer custom labels to their superfan communities. For example, Cardi B fans can earn a “Bardi Gang” badge, while Ed Sheeran’s community has “Sheerio,” and J Balvin’s fans use “La Familia.” More than 500 million fans globally have accepted either standard or custom top fan badges to date.

Meta says these updates are designed to help fans move from being casual followers to active participants in creator-led communities. By offering recognition and interactive opportunities, the new features aim to foster meaningful connections between creators and their most engaged audiences.