How the introduction of Facebook reactions can benefit businesses!

Last week you may have noticed a slight change in how Facebook functions, now instead of simply liking or commenting on a post you have the opportunity to ‘react’ to these posts as well. What might seem like a simple change to Facebook and it’s liking system, could actually be a lot more important that you would initially believe it to be.

For the first time you can now appreciate a post with more than just a thumbs up, Facebook have now rolled out ‘reactions’ to posts. In addition to the established ‘like’ Facebook have now introduced ‘love’ ‘haha’ ‘wow’ ‘sad’ and ‘angry.’

For the last few years, Facebook have been monitoring how people are replying to content posted on the website and noticed that there’s a huge increase in people posting emojis in response to a post. For years Facebook users have longed for a dislike button as often ‘liking’ something doesn’t convey how people actually feel, so introducing these new reactions is a huge step forward. 

Whilst mostly a fun novelty for general users of the website, for brands these new reactions could be highly beneficial. In the simplest terms, these reaction buttons allow for brands to view how customers or potential customers react to their posts or any sponsored posts they write, allowing brands to really understand what customers enjoy and what they don’t, which is great for planning future content and developing the brand.

The use of emojis makes the reactions much more personal, a simple like often makes it hard to gauge exactly what a person actually feels about the content, whereas a ‘love’ reaction or ‘angry’ reaction makes you much more aware of the feelings of the person on the other side of the screen.

Right now it’s hard to tell how much of an effect these reactions alone will have on brands, however it’s likely that with these small changes will come much larger ones, ones which will hugely impact how Facebook functions. These changes could see Facebook become a much more empathetic experience which will ultimately make interactions with your customers even better.