My Reaction to Facebook Reactions – Episode #4

Facebook reactions. Love them or hate them?

Sometime last Thursday they arrived. Facebook reactions exploded onto Irish and Spanish news feeds. People were delighted, not only were they using them with abandon but status updates were full of chatter about them.

I’d love to say that I stood back and watched but I was blown away too. There’s something about a yellow smiley face that is almost irrisistable. Five days on we’ve calmed down a bit. I still find myself thinking before I click Like, do I really just Like it or do I want to express something else. Novelty as well as the wish to be more expressive with my Like drives me to keep using them.

Here’s my reaction:

As you may have guessed, I think they are a success. I do wonder if will we continue to use them in the long run. I also wonder if the small selection of emotions that they allow me is enough. Too much choice would mean I wouldn’t use them but I’d really like a hug emotion added.

For Facebook pages we may see an increase in interactions, if people enjoy expressing themselves more perhaps they will interact with our posts more. I’ve seen nothing of the sort on my page yet but I can see it working well for consumer focussed business.

I particularly like that none of the reactions represent a down vote. That sort of system could be so easily abused. So page owners don’t fret, whichever emotion your followers choose will count as a positive interaction.