There’s a whole lotta new reactions going on in Facebook. No longer are you limited to “Like” when responding to a Facebook post. You now have five new emoji buttons to click: “Love,” “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad,” and “Angry.”
The emoji buttons will automatically be added to your computer Web browsers, but to get the new feature on your iPhones and Android phones, you will need to go to the App Store and update the Facebook app. It appears that Windows and Blackberry phones are not yet in the loop.
On the left is a post with the new reaction buttons displayed, and on the right is the post after you choose an emoji.
Using the new Facebook reaction buttons is easy. For desktop applications, simply hover over the Like button for the reaction emojis to pop up, then tap on one. For mobile devices, hold down on the Like button to get the buttons to appear. Once you’ve chosen your reaction to the post, the total reaction tally goes up.
To determine the breakdowns for the six buttons, simply hover over each emoji for a list of names, or click on any emoji to get the total count for each one. So far, love is the most popular button, with the new reaction emojis making their global debut this week after a trial run in Spain, Ireland, Chile, the Philippines, and a few other countries.
You can only choose one reaction at a time and even change your mind as often as you wish, while keeping the total tally the same. So while you might feel a strong urge to share the “Love,” an overwhelming need to express a “Wow” could surface, followed by a crazy “Haha” moment, which no one can really blame you for feeling. Now it’s all possible, but you have to pick just one, so make a choice already, for crying out loud.
Speaking of crying, you can finally express “Sad” when something calls for it, instead of settling for an awkward “Like” when it seems insensitive in response to a post about a pet who’s died or the latest news on the state of the climate. With the political debate in high gear, the “Angry” reaction could get some good use too, although “Haha” serves as a pleasant alternative.
Whether you choose to love or laugh, be sad or mad, this information is going to help Facebook and businesses. The new emotional bandwidth data gives users the satisfaction of expressing more specific feelings, while brands get the benefit of using these reactions to gauge future messages.
Marketers can use this knowledge along with Facebook Pages, where you have to dig to see any negative feedback. In the Insights category, you can see how many people hide a post, report spam, or unlike a page due to a post. The new information from reaction buttons can be helpful in understanding how each post is received. Before this when a follower hides a post, it could simply mean they don’t want their Newsfeed cluttered with brand posts and not because they don’t like the message.
How will the new reaction buttons impact Facebook? How will they affect society? Sandi Krakowski, a top social media influencer and thought leader, had this to say about the original “Like” button:
“The psychology behind a LIKE button and how we respond to this tiny button has changed our world and brought global strangers into a connected neighborhood. Studies reveal that people feel a reward when they are able to LIKE our content as a brand. They want to BELONG!”
That message calls for a giant WOW reaction. What we do with our emotional emoji buttons just might change the world again.