How will your Facebook Reactions matter?

Something showed up on my feed today. I felt rather strongly about it and unlike before, I took approximately 30 seconds to decide on how I would react to it (2 Primetime TV ads came and went).

I ended up showing it some love.

In case you missed it, Facebook rolled out a suite of emotions (officially known as Reactions) late February. A whole suite of 6 new emotive Reactions allowing users to express empathy; Love, Haha (Funny? Happy?), Wow, Sad, and Angry. Since then I have been keenly observing not just my Facebook news feed but also potential changes in my reactions towards posts. So far, I have yet to see many towards my own updates. Some have liked some stuff but so far, my shared posts ain’t got no love yet.

The Facebook Like played a huge role in providing brands and digital marketers a way to measure user engagement. It gave users a sense of expression, enabling them to go beyond a click-through and convey sentiment. For a long time now, the Facebook Like is a key measurement of success by many digital marketers. Though not the most accurate, it still provided data allowing one to surmise that the number of Likes equated to the number of users who felt sort-of-positive enough to react or respond to a Facebook post.

But are human emotions that linear and straightforward?

When a user likes a post, do they really like a post? What is the true value of a like these days anyway? With attention span decreasing and mental overload more prevalent, is it possible that sometimes users are simply giving away their likes for free? And if this were the case, what does this mean for brands and digital marketers alike?

The introduction of new Facebook Reactions have undoubtedly disrupted the way users (we) interact with Facebook posts. While I tend to giveaway my Likes pretty freely, I find myself pausing now to consider an appropriate reaction for posts that truly provoke. Does this HuffPost Women post on Caitlyn Jenner warrant a WOW or just a LIKE? I feel quite strongly about Trumps’ presidential campaign — I am not angry but I do want to express myself. So should I go with WOW, as in I-can’t-believe-this-is-where-we-are-at-in-2016, or should I just ignore the post and move on.

This move by Facebook will soon prove to be valuable for brands and digital marketers. At time of writing, user Reactions of Loves, Wows, Sads, Hahas and Angrys are measured the same as Likes — offering little insight to what users are feeling. However, this undoubtedly will lead to smarter targeting on the platform. Perhaps digital marketers will soon be able to personalise ads to users who reacted angrily (with an Angry emoji of course) towards a post in attempt to convert them into brand advocates.

In the beginning, it won’t matter if someone likes, “wows” or “sads” a post — we will initially use any Reaction similar to a Like to infer that you want to see more of that type of content. — Facebook

Until more is revealed, here are my questions: How will digital marketers accurately determine a customer’s true feelings toward a Facebook post alongside this introduction of additional Reactions? More accurate deduction can be made from reading comments left by users so will Facebook evolve towards providing tools to dig deeper into them for more qualitative data? How will Facebook Insights translate that into actionable insights that will be useful for brands and digital marketers alike?

I would love to hear your thoughts.