What Was Your Reaction?
When Facebook’s reactions showed up last week, there was the typical banter as to who likes them and who doesn’t. Me, as with most new features or updates, it’s never about liking or disliking them. It’s about figuring out how to use them.
And, as it turns out….
…Facebook’s reactions are quite the tool for getting more interaction on your posts.
Why?
Facebook does a great job at limiting brand pages from communicating directly with people. It’s why pages can only tag individuals under only a few circumstances:
- The ability to reply to comments via private message (Private message page replies)
. - The ability to tag individuals in a post who have previously engaged on that post. Put simply, if you engage on my Facebook post about this article, I can tag you as my page in that post.
Here’s the kicker – reactions count as engagement. No big update there as I could always tag you to say ‘thanks for the like’ previously. The issue with that approach meant ‘do it for one and you pretty much need to do it for all.’ Could get a bit tedious, not to mention string of comments filled with the same ‘thank you’. I will admit my friend Debra Jason has this technique quite well. (It’s actually her technique I thought of when reactions first appeared).
Reactions, however, offer a bit more. Add a ‘Wow’ to my Facebook post and I can tag you in a comment asking ‘Why the wow’. I could further ask if it was you learned something from my post or some other reason.
An angry reaction? I could respond with ‘Do you disagree?’
So much more potential than the plain old ‘like’ wouldn’t you agree?
Facebook’s reactions open up a number of new opportunities for brand pages to tag individuals to create more engagement and interaction.
They are nice little gift from Facebook. So, I guess I do like them!
Your Thoughts on Facebook’s Reactions?
Like, dislike? Maybe you have a better appreciation for them now?
