In an effort to foster growth of video communities, Facebook recently rolled out its Facebook Creator app, providing social influencers with tools for creating feature-rich content. Available to all on iOS (and soon on Android), the product is an update and rebrand of the Facebook Mentions app, originally only offered to verified public figures. The new app includes enhanced fan engagement tools to help influencers add intros and outros to their streaming video broadcasts, cross-posting to Instagram and Twitter, and a central inbox for Facebook, Instagam and Messenger. Creator also features expansive analytics.

“Any individual profile or Page can download Creator for access to the enhanced fan engagement tools,” reports TechCrunch. “Facebook is also launching a Facebook for Creators website with best practices for growing fan bases, examples of what other stars are doing and access to answers of frequently asked questions.”

“The app sounds handy for people who are already doing these things,” The Verge adds. “But the bigger story might just be that Facebook is trying to show it cares about the community of independent vloggers.”

The bundle offers tools for polishing the quality of Live broadcasts. It enables creators to add intros (such as a greeting or theme song), outros (a standard sign-off or call to follow via social media, for example) and custom emoji reactions. Creators can also add immersive-looking borders to videos via graph frames.

Putting all the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger comments in a single inbox could encourage more interaction with fans and possibly reduce the time required to remove trolls’ remarks. In turn, more brands may be interested in advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

“These features push Facebook Live well beyond the capabilities of Twitter’s Periscope, and could make it more viable than YouTube Live,” suggests TechCrunch.

The Facebook Newsroom lists Creator’s features under four key areas:

• Live Creative Kit: Access exclusive tools that make it easy to create live broadcasts with a personalized and fun feel. Creators can add intros as openers to their live broadcasts, outros that conclude them, custom live stickers that viewers can use to interact, and graphic frames to create a consistent brand.
• Community Tab: Connect with fans and collaborators with a unified inbox, which centralizes comments from Facebook and Instagram, and messages from Messenger.
• Camera & Stories: Use fun camera effects and frames and easily crosspost content to other platforms. Creators can also access Facebook Stories to engage with their fans.
• Insights: Easily access metrics to inform content creation, including analytics about your Page, videos and fans.