“Like” has been joined by “Love”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry” on Facebook.
Facebook’s new “Reactions”
For years, Facebook users have been wanting an “Unlike” button and while they haven’t gone that far, Facebook has now added five small emoticons they call “Reactions” that allow your visitors to more accurately record their emotion to your post in their newsfeeds.
This has caused more than a little noise from marketers and corporate communicators who are very concerned about what kinds of reactions their posts may receive.
The jury is still out on how effective this new Facebook development will be but don’t hit the panic button. At least not yet!
Remember “Angry” or “Sad” may be exactly the reaction you would like to provoke and this new level of detail will tell you a lot more about the kind of engagement you are getting with your posts, and engagement is what its all about.
Prior to “Reactions”, all your viewer could do was “Like” the post and now they can express true empathy. Whether their own, or the collective numbers of various “Reactions” to a post, this development may encourage visitors to click on and delve deeper into your content. And that’s a good thing.
A previous post of ours highlighted the value of analytics and this Facebook development is yet more proof of how important it is to know the effectiveness of your Social Media posts. What reaction are you getting?