How will Facebook’s new “reaction” buttons affect your business?

Facebook users have been begging for a “dislike” button for years. Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman, chief executive and co-founder of Facebook, expressed that creating a “dislike” button was far too meek for Facebook users. Although the “like” button has been around for years, the content shared on Facebook every day is much too diverse for users to accurately express an opinion through only a “like” and a “dislike” button.

In February 2016, Facebook released an array of “emoji” reactions that allows users to demonstrate their reactions to the post whether it be a video, a status, a share or a photo. The five reactions that are now featured on Facebook are “Love”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry”. Geoff Teehan, Facebook’s director of product and design, expressed his thoughts on the subject saying that “This might seem like a pretty straightforward task: Just slap a thumbs down next to the Like button and ship it. It’s not nearly that simple though. People need a much higher degree of sophistication and richness in what choices we provide for their communications. Binary ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ doesn’t properly reflect how we react to the vast array of things we encounter in our real lives.”

Businesses are thrilled with this new development on Facebook because it allows them to have a better insight on what their potential customers think of their posts. These “emojis” make social media data and metrics much more accurate and valuable to their business. When Facebook users react to a post, they are providing beneficial data and insight that businesses can evaluate and use to tailor their posts and services to what their potential consumers want.

How to use reaction buttons on Facebook: On a desktop, simply hover your cursor over the “like” button and the emojis will appear for you to choose from. If you’re using a phone or a tablet, hold the “like” button using your finger and the array of reactions will appear.