Because Not Everything Should Be “Liked”
Facebook currently has over 1.3 billion users all sharing content or participating in conversations around content shared by family, friends, or online brands. When someone posted happy news or a product announcement that you were excited about it was easy for you to press the like button. But not all news shared by friends and family is so positive that you’d want to “like” it. Posts that reported bad or sad news would receive likes merely to express solidarity and support. Users of Facebook have been begging for a “Don’t Like” button for years, but Facebook decided to take it one step further.
Facebook has now given us a better way to express ourselves. Where we once just had the like button and wanted a “Don’t Like” button, Facebook realized there is a whole spectrum of emotions that their users want to express to shared content and they’ve done that with Facebook Reactions. Don’t worry, the like button is still there, but now you have more options on how you can express yourself. If you hover over the existing like button, five more reactions will appear. These allow you to better choose the reaction you have to a post rather than just being forced to like something no matter the content.
But what do they mean for your business? How might these new reactions affect Facebook marketing? Reactions will give you new insights and data to increase your understanding of how your audience is responding to the particular content you’re sharing. This will give you better knowledge in how you can adjust your marketing or posting strategy based on your followers reactions to your content.
As an admin of a page, you can see the full breakdown of reactions on each of your posts by finding the specific post and clicking on it. According to Social Media Examiner, “Facebook Reactions do not count as negative feedback.” So an ‘Angry’ reaction won’t affect your page negatively, making any reaction to your content a good one since your audience is engaging with you.
Facebook has really helped create a new feature to allow your customers to engage with you in a far more flexible way. Rather then limiting their engagement to just likes, your followers can feel more comfortable to express themselves naturally. Embrace Facebook’s new “Reactions” and use this as even more of a reason to get out there and connect with your followers.