Facebook rolled out this change at the end of February after years of feedback that people wanted the ability to dislike posts in the same way that they could “like” them. After a lot of analysis to determine how people wanted to be able to respond to posts, and what those response emojis should look like to convey their respective emotions appropriately, Facebook released five new reaction options.
These reactions allow Facebook users to convey much more nuanced emotions in response to a post rather than the simple binary like or dislike. So what do Facebook reactions mean for your business and how can you use them to develop content? Using our social media expert opinion, we’re here to help break it down for you!
Simply put, Facebook’s new reactions allow your business to gauge sentiment around the content that you’re posting. Sure, before you could read through comments to get a sense of whether people appreciated the things you were posting, but that was tedious and often misleading because many people preferred to just click the like button instead of explaining how they actually felt about a particular post in a comment. Gone are the days of guessing! The same click of a button that previously just stated whether or not someone cared about something that you posted has now been refined into the most common emotions that people experience while using Facebook.
This is especially important for businesses that have their content shared a lot because a share can really mean anything. A share can mean, “This is mind blowing, check it out!” or “See?! I’ve been saying this all along!” or “Can you believe this idiot just said this horrible thing?!” Pairing Facebook reactions with other metrics like shares can give you a better view of the bigger picture!
Plan Upcoming Content
Once you have a handle on how your audience is responding to your content, you can use that sentiment analysis to plan future content and tweak existing content. Each emoji says something about what you’ve posted and what your next steps should be.
- Love
Facebook’s love emoji is like Twitter’s old “favorite” star – it indicates that your followers don’t just like your post, they have emotions that take it a step further into the rarified air of love. Content that your audience loves is the key to creating more engagement later on and creating passionate brand advocates. Getting people to love your content means you’re doing the right thing and you should continue to dedicate resources to creating more content like that. You can even recycle your most loved content!
Time will only tell whether businesses will start imploring their customers to “love us on Facebook” instead of age old “like us on Facebook” command, but being able to tell the difference is crucial!
- Haha
Turn funny content into the types of things you share on Fridays, weekends, or any time your audience just needs a pick-me-up. This type of lighthearted content is sure to get shared, increasing its chances of going viral and getting your business more exposure! - Wow
The wow emoji indicates that people either learned something new from what you posted or were surprised by it. Either way, this content is gold! People love to find out new things, which means that this content provides a great opportunity to keep your audience engaged. - Sad
Sad emojis without like or love emojis to accompany them are a sign of a problem. It’s not a great idea to bum out your followers, so if you have to post something sad, always look for a way that you can offer assistance or make people feel better about what you’re posting. For instance, if you post a news article about a natural disaster, offer to contribute a portion of your profits to a relief organization or charity that’s assisting victims. - Angry
It’s pretty clear that you should stay away from posting content that angers your audience, but a lot of angry emojis can signal the need to apologize to your audience and address the issue at hand. If you see a lot of those little red grumpy guys on one of your posts, take the reputation management approach and put out that fire right away!
Still can’t really get a handle on how you can use Facebook reactions to benefit your social media content strategy? Reach out to us! We’d be happy to answer any question you may have and give you some Facebook management tips!
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!