Do you remember the days on Facebook when all you did was poke people and maybe throw the occasional sheep? Once that had become boring Facebook added the ubiquitous Like button and everyone was happy for a while.
Those were simpler times and we kind of miss them.
But soon decent came to Facebook, what if you didn’t like the post? You couldn’t press the like button that would give the wrong signal, but there was no other option.
For a long time there was a loud lobby for an Un-Like button to be added so you could display your displeasure. Facebook aren’t keen on negativity and a simple Un-Like button was still to severe they were no shades in there, no way to display how you felt emotionally about the post, so the Un-like button never appeared.
Say hello to Facebook reactions
After a lot of debate Facebook finally rolled out their solution – Facebook Reactions – across the site and people have really taken to them. As well as just plain old like you can Love, HaHa (Laugh), Wow, Sad or Angry a post. These emotional responses to Facebook posts apply to business as well as private pages now. So the big question is, do the responses you get to your business pages effect how your content is shown to the Facebook audience?
After much user speculation, Facebook has at last confirmed that using Reactions influences the way a user’s News Feed looks. It seems Facebook’s algorithm puts more weight on Reactions over Likes to decide what content is shown in a user’s News Feed.
Facebook gave their rationale in a recent statement to Mashable:
“Over the past year we’ve found that if people leave a Reaction on a post, it is an even stronger signal that they’d want to see that type of post than if they left a Like on the post. So we are updating News Feed to weigh reactions a little more than Likes when taking into account how relevant the story is to each person.”
While Facebook currently say that is weighs all Reactions the same. While we have no concrete proof we’ve a very strong feeling that positive Facebook reactions will help business page content much more than negative ones.
Create Facebook posts people love
How should this influence your businesses Facebook strategy? Pretty simple really ensue that you are regularly posting updates which drive the happy emotions. Posting good news stories, funny content, amazing facts, great case studies etc will help drive the right emotions and help your Facebook pages rise to the top of the feed.
Even if this is not proven anyone who has a look at your business posts or your full page wants to be seeing a wave of Likes, Loves, Haha and Wows or Sad and Angry.
Unless your posts have been designed to emote a Sad or Angry reaction I’d investigate any post that begins to pick up lots of those on your page.
One Love
The great news is that given the trauma 2016 put the world through, the most used Facebook Reaction was Love – accounting for over half the Reactions used.
Do you need help ensuring your businesses Facebook reactions are helping your content surface to the top of news feeds? Just give us a call on 07834 197785 or fill in the contact form below.
In case you were wondering the emoji cushion at the top of the post is available to buy from Love Bomb Cushions.
