Facebook is letting users in the United States to promote their postings by paying the company a fee to boost. The promoted-posts feature started first in New Zealand in May and gradually rolled out to people in more than 20 countries. It will now appear to a limited number of of people in the U.S. and ensures that a comment or photo shared by a Facebook member gets prominent billing in their friends' newsfeeds.

"When you promote a post - whether it's wedding photos, a garage sale, or big news - you bump it higher in news feed so your friends and subscribers are more likely to notice it," Facebook said in an announcement on its official blog on Wednesday.



The current test price in the United States is $7, according to a Facebook.

The move marks Facebook's latest effort to experiment with new ways to make money beyond advertising.

Last week, Facebook unveiled a feature that lets U.S. users buy and send real gifts to their friends. This feature is initially available to a limited number of users in the United States.

The paid postings will be visible on the desktop and mobile versions of the social network.

Facebook hit the 1 billion milestone on September 14 at 12:45 p.m. Pacific time, the company said on its website. The company said it had 600 million mobile users, according to a fact sheet the company posted online.