Facebook’s new Reactions button

We knew it was coming, but this week Facebook finally launched their new ‘Reactions’ button globally. Following months of consumer testing, your Facebook newsfeed is about to get a whole lot more expressive. From Love, Haha and Wow to Sad and Angry, Facebook is giving us five emotions we can use to react to posts – as well as the good old Like of course. To activate this option, simply hover over the Like button on a desktop or hold it down on your mobile to see the different emojis pop up.

The creation of the Reaction button comes following the long requested option from users to simply Dislike posts, but not wanting to be too negative, Facebook has offered us a compromise. It also speaks to a growing desire for people to leave feedback in a quicker, gesture-based manner. After all, who doesn’t love a good emoji?!

How will brands be affected?

• Users will now be able to interact with company news, developments and advertising using Reactions.
• Companies will have no control over which Reactions are available to their fans, which means that Anger is always a dangerous possibility.
• Reactions will provide a greater insight and help brands tailor make their social media content for their fans, potentially creating better and more targeted campaigns in the future.
• If Facebook grants brands access to the full breakdown of Reactions data, this could be incorporated into more targeted paid advertising on the social network.
• It could reduce the number of negative comments you see as users choose to express themselves with Reactions – this may prevent negative comments snowballing.
• If a complaint has been posted and is getting a lot of Sad or Angry Reactions you’ll be able to reach out specifically to those people in a way similar to how customer services departments manage negative comment on Twitter.
• Finally, Reactions will measure customer emotions and surely the more we know about our customers the better, right?