Finally, Facebook went beyond the ‘Like’ button. They recently launched the ‘Reactions’ buttons, which are now being tested in Ireland and Spain before they release them worldwide. So, how will these ‘Reactions’ buttons affect businesses and marketers?
How Facebook ‘Reactions’ Emoji Buttons Work
There are currently six ‘Reactions’ emoji buttons: anger, astonishment, love, sadness, laughter, and happiness. How did Facebook choose these emotions? They did an evaluation of different focus groups and their users’ comments to see what emotions they’d want to use aside from the ‘Like’ button. These buttons are pretty straightforward to use. Simply press and hold down the ‘Like’ button, and then slide your finger or mouse horizontally to pick the ‘Reaction’ you want to use for a particular post. Facebook’s complex News Feed algorithm will consider Reactions as likes. Thus, they’ll post more ads, articles, and pages that you want to see more based on these reactions.
How Will These Benefit Businesses and Marketers?
Accurate Content
‘Reactions’ buttons will help marketers and business owners have better understanding of their audience’s behavior and sentiments. It’s easier to know what types of posts draw out specific emotions, so they can make the necessary adjustments.
Faster Feedback
There’s a good reason ‘Reactions’ buttons were tested in Spain and Ireland first. People there tend to be more self-contained. With these buttons in place, it’s easier for people in these countries to express their opinions and emotions without commenting. Besides, most people today don’t always have the time to comment.
Better Lead Prospecting
One of the important things marketers and business owners have to do is to know everything there is to know about their target leads. Better understanding means better lead prospecting and content. Once you’re able to do that, you’ll most likely have higher conversion rates. So here comes Social media management.
As of now, Facebook is still in the process of testing and refining their ‘Reactions’ emoji buttons. It’s still not certain if a “Haha” button will have a greater impact on people than a “Sad” button on the Front Page algorithm. However, Facebook expects to gain better understanding on how these ‘Reactions’ will influence what individuals would want to view in their News Feeds through testing.
Gradient Social Solutions expects the reactions may be used to create more in depth psychological profiling so that content on their front page is better suited to their emotional inclinations. For example, there may be some users that are more strongly inclined to engage with content that makes them laugh, while others may be more likely to engage with content that makes them say “Wow”.
Bottom line: Continue to create and post content that your target audience finds significant and interesting, especially when Facebook’s ‘Reactions’ emoji buttons are finally available globally.
Are you aware of these new reaction emoji buttons? How do you think will this affect your business page?
Guest Author: David V is the Creative Director at Gradient Social Solutions in Melbourne Australia