Endorse Your Favorite Candidates on Facebook

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Enough commenting: Now you can formally "endorse" a presidential candidate on Facebook.

U.S. presidential endorsements have historically been the territory of newspapers, celebrities, fellow politicians and various nationwide organizations. Facebook Inc. has made it a news-feed feature. It's not just for presidential candidates, either: Any politician with a Facebook page now has an "Endorse" button, including U.S. senators and representatives, state reps, city council members, potentially even the local dogcatcher.

So go to your electoral pick's Facebook page, click the Endorsements tab at left, then click Endorse to write your declaration. Why does this person get your vote on Nov. 8?

If you make your endorsement public, your chosen candidate could promote your message on Facebook for anyone to see. If you keep it visible to just your Facebook friends, it will show up as a post on your Facebook page and in your friends' news feeds. It will also be visible to your friends when they look at your candidate's Endorsements tab.

Note: Nothing here will stop you from endorsing opposing candidates -- nothing except common sense, perhaps.

Endorsements are the latest move from Facebook to get its users politically engaged. Since January, it has been encouraging its users to register to vote. One reason why Facebook wants you to be politically active? It could profit from it: Some industry watchers project that the social network will surpass Alphabet Inc.'s Google in revenue from political ads .

Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2016 16:20 ET (20:20 GMT)

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