A bomb is about to go off under your Facebook page if it hasn’t already… and I’m here to explain it for you.
Meta One is the name of that explosive device.
Basically, Facebook page admins will have to take out a subscription to pay for links and several other things which until now were free.
This is the largest change to Facebook since pages were introduced in 2007. It will completely change how content is planned and created.
In short:
- You’ll only be able to post two free links a month to a Facebook page without a Meta One subscription.
But…
- You’ll have to pay for extra links to posts and also add links within Reels.
- You’ll have to pay to link from your Facebook page to your website.
- You’ll have to pay to get a high ranking in Facebook search.
- You’ll have to pay to reach beyond your Facebook page followers.
Much of this you can only find out by reading between the lines.
In this post I’ll explain what this means for a Facebook page admin.
What is Meta One?
This is the name to a subscription model for Facebook profiles and pages. Meta Core and Meta Premium are aimed at individuals. Meta Essential, Advanced, Expert and Max are aimed at page admins.
Each Meta One subscription allows you to add one Facebook page and I’ll go through the options further down the post.
The first important point is that Meta One is in limited testing and is slowly being rolled out. But page admins are starting to see this appear on their pages.
But first…
How did we get here?
Facebook for some years has dialed back on posts from pages with links. At first, they said this was in response to user feedback. What people wanted to see was updates from friends and family, they told us. Now they can see a profit in restricting links they’ve stopped saying that so much.
But behind this, Facebook have a point.
People don’t want to click to a poorly-written webpage. They want the information on the platform. So, tell the story on the platform has been a good maxim to follow.
Back in February Facebook started to test the idea of introducing charges for links on Facebook pages.
And now…
What the Meta One subscription for Facebook means
Each level buys you something extra. Prices are UK in September 2026.
Meta One Essential £12.49 a month (£149.88 a year)
This gets you the following
- “A verified badge.”
- “Protection from impersonators.”
- “Add links to your profile.”
What this means for public sector people. There’s maybe some merit in having a verified badge and the automated protection from impersonators. It’s a shame something that used to be a civic obligation now has a cost attached. Being able to add a link to your profile in this tier is interesting. The implication is that without paying you can’t link to your website which has been the default setting on every page since pages were introduced.
There is some suggestion that this price bracket buys you two extra links a month but this is unclear.
Meta One Advanced £41.99 a month (£503.88 a year)
This gets you the following:
- “A verified badge.”
- “Impersonation protection.”
- “Your posts can get shown to people beyond your followers.”
- “Add eight links to posts and eight extra links for Reels.”
- “Appear higher in search results.”
- “Enhanced profile. Add three locations and three other profiles on Facebook.”
- “Bold Follow button on your Reels.”
- “One support case per month with a real person.”
- “Advanced content scheduling and reach your audience when they’re most active.”
- “Follow invitations. Turn interactions into lasting connections by automatically sending follow invitations to people who engage with your content.”
What this means for public sector people. You get the Meta One Essential perks but you also get eight links in posts and another eight in Reels. So, this has a knock-on effect on your video creation game. If you do pay for this tier you’ll need to use your links wisely.
The ability to invite people to like your page is handy. So, if someone has liked or commented they’ll get an automatic invite. This can be handy if they are residents in a council area, for example.
What’s interesting in this tier is the ability to show content beyond your followers. The implication is that you won’t be able to unless you pay. This is a huge change. Until now the architecture of social media is to blow-up and make viral a popular post travel far and wide. This appears to end that for low or no Meta One accounts.
In addition, unless you pay you won’t figure as high in Facebook’s notoriously rubbish search engine? Interesting. For most public sector organisations this is less of a concern. They may well have established pages and brands.
The advanced content scheduling option is interesting. If you blow £6k a year on a social media monitoring tool then this starts to become a debate that this route is a saving. Also interesting is that you can actually talk to a real human being once a month.
Meta One Expert £129 a month (£1,548 a year)
This gets you the following
- “A verified badge.”
- “Add 20 links to posts and 20 links to Reels.”
- “Dedicated support five times a month.”
- “Impersonation protection.”
- “Featured in feed. Have the opportunity to be featured in feed and introduce your brand to new audiences.”
- “Appear higher in search results.”
- “Bold Follow button on your Reels.”
- “Follow invitations. Turn interactions into lasting connections by automatically sending follow invitations to people who engage with your content.”
- “Enhanced linksheet. Make it easier for people to find your website, social channels and other key destinations right from your your profile.”
- “Advanced content scheduling and reach your audience when they’re most active.”
- “Five support cases per month with a real person.”
- “Custom chat themes.”
What this means for the public sector. All the previous benefits plus 20 links in posts plus 20 links in Reels. Plus five calls for support. I’m not sure if the step from the lower ‘Advanced’ option is worth all that.
Meta One Expert £419 a month (£5,028 a year)
- “A verified badge.”
- “Add links to posts and links to Reels.”
- “Unlimited dedicated support.”
- “Impersonation protection.”
- “Featured in feed. Have the opportunity to be featured in feed and introduce your brand to new audiences.”
- “Appear higher in search results.”
- “Enhanced linksheet. Make it easier for people to find your website, social channels and other key destinations right from your your profile.”
- “Enhanced profile. Eight addresses and eight other profiles on Facebook.”
- “Bold Follow button on your Reels.”
- “Follow invitations. Turn interactions into lasting connections by automatically sending follow invitations to people who engage with your content.”
- “Unlimited links in Reels.”
- “Unlimited links in posts.”
- “Unlimited cases with support specialists.”
- “Advanced content scheduling.”
- “Custom chat themes.”
What this means for the public sector. All the benefits from lower price points but the ability to post as many links as you like in posts and Reels. It feels as though five grand a year is pretty expensive unless you are Coca Cola.
Links in comment may not be the answer
By the way, if you are thinking the links in comments workaround is the way round this, you may need to think again.
I’ll blog a follow-up of potential workarounds in part two.
Conclusion
If something is free then has a charge people are going to be angry.
Regardless of whether you take out a Meta One subscription or not this is going to have to lead to a fundamental re-appraisal of how content is created. This is not a bad thing. For far too long some comms people have just synched with a social media management tool and pumped out links. The amount of Facebook timeline taken up by posts from a page with a link is now a witheringly small 0.6 per cent.
Is it worth it?
That’s the $64,000 dollar question.
It all depends on how important Facebook is for your communications strategy.
Many comms teams have a social media management subscription and it looks like Meta have their eyes on that particular lawn. If you want unlimited links that’s £5k a year. But I really don’t think that links are the way forward.
But I can see an argument for Meta One Essential or even Advanced.
I’ll follow-up with a part two on work-arounds if you don’t have the funds to pay and I’ll write a third part on Meta One on Instagram and WhatsApp.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
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Creative commons credit: Pagemaster by Rob Croes / Anefo
Terrific post Mr. Slee, very helpful.
thank you so much.