Facebook’s latest attempt to attract revenue consists of setting up a priority messaging system to try to entice users to pay for guaranteed delivery of messages. They have also replaced some privacy settings with more flexible filters to allow more relevant messages to get through. SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto said he doesn’t really see the average Facebook being interested in this type of service. He said, “I think the bottom line here really isn’t about people . . . when you think about who would want to make sure messages get to you that they would pay for, I think that business is really the end goal here, and this is a step to that.”

Casaretto felt certain that businesses with focused email campaigns would be the most likely candidates willing to pay for messages. He attempted to explain what these businesses hope to achieve. Although it seems like a stretch that the average user would be thinking in terms of a business’s marketing strategy when viewing yet another spam email, Casaretto said that by adding these costs to increase their consumer base, businesses hope that users comprehend they must have an important message to convey to them if they’re willing to spend the money for guaranteed delivery.

Casaretto went into detail describing the new privacy settings and how Facebook would determine which messages are “relevant” enough to make it to your inbox. Basically, if somebody has paid to send a message to you, then you must want to see it. As a side benefit, the implementation of the new priority system and the cost per message could potentially reduce the amount of spam.

But what’s not to say that some businesses will feel that the cost of sending messages is still an investment if they can get even one person to read their email and visit their website. In which case, if Facebook insists on using this mindset, it seems like they have completely ignored how the majority of their users will view this system they’re trying to implement. Users won’t have a leisurely one-on-one discussion with themselves over whether they should click on a message in their Facebook inbox based on if the sender paid for it. Nobody will feel special about receiving yet another mass email just because it was paid for. Nobody thinks like that. If it looks like spam, if it reads like spam, then it must be spam. Delete. End of story. However, Casaretto emphasized once again that this is about monetizing the businesses that actually use Facebook.  See the entire segment with Kristin Feledy and John Casaretto on the Morning NewsDesk Show.