Under s t andi ngFac ebook ’ sn ew“ Reac t i ons ” us i ngt he“ 7C’ sf r amewor kofDi gi t al Mar k et i ng” Add a Noun/ Verb (Love), few adjectives ( Sad, Angry ) & few interjections (Haha, Wow) and you get the new ensemble cast of Faceboo, ready to disru!t "ocial media, as we now it# $ am sure by now you are wondering what%s so disru!tive about this minor enhancement that Faceboo recently launched# et%s see some data !oints'##the very reason why this launch assumes enormous !ro!ortion# Faceboo has #* billion users worldwide, highest for any
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"ocial media !latform# +- of mareters re!ort that Faceboo is critical or
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im!ortant to their business# ("ource. "tate of $nbound areting areting 0 •
1n an average, the ie ie and "hare 2uttons are viewed across almost 0 million websites daily# ("ource. Faceboo as of 0//0+)
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3very 40 seconds on Faceboo
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*5,000 statuses are u!dated,
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54,000 !hotos are u!loaded,
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0 comments are !osted ("ource. 6he "ocial "inny)#
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ost im!ortantly, a!!ro7# a!!ro7# 4 mn posts are lied by Faceboo users every 40 seconds
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Add to this the average time s!ent !er Faceboo visit of 0 minutes/ day ("ource. $nfodocet) "o 8hat%s new with these data !oints##'$ agree with your thought##'#these are just data !oints'#errrr''this is where Faceboo has !layed the smartest card so far# ar 9ucerberg describes new :eactions as ; company's biggest design change to date< and went against his own !hiloso!hy of
;move fast and break things< for this one# ; We’ve been working on this for a while. t’s s!rprisingly complicated to make an interaction that yo! want to be that simple,< =31 ar
9ucerberg said at a !ublic town hall in enlo >ar, =alifornia, in "e!tember 0, the ?rst time Faceboo !ublicly acnowledged it was woring on a change# Faceboo stores more than 500 !etabytes of data and has multi!le algorithms to categori@e various content/ comments on its !latform into meaningful data !oints for mareters to leverage its networ# 8e will initially use any :eaction similar to a ie to infer that you want to see more of that ty!e of content, Faceboo said in a se!arate blog !ost# 6he com!any said it will also use :eactions to trac user behavior and for ad delivery# $f one loos at the recent Faceboo initiatives of ;emories from !ast year<, 540 degree Video content, B$Fs, Faceboo for 8or or the C!coming Virtual :eality, all these have been aimed towards introducing new content ty!es or mediums to engage with the
larger community but none which indicates what one feels about that content# Des, =omments section has e7isted since the launch but we all now that its ado!tion rate is just a fraction of ;ies< !henomenon# ;:eactions< has the !otential to mae this !henomenon “Infnitely” better and !rovide great insights to how !eo!le engage# et%s use the Eigital areting framewor of =%s (refer to my earlier !ost on ;Eigital areting G "hift from +>s to =s< to evaluate how the new ;:eactions< score from a areters !ers!ective# 7C’s framework (Context -> Content -> Customize -> Compare -> Connect -> Convenience -> Culture) to evaluate new “Reactions” 1 Context!
Notwithstanding the varying ado!tion rates across countries, in few years, Faceboo will have tons of ;:ich data< available for areters to leverage and micro target s!eci?c audiences# ;ie< button, though still !owerful, has lost its relevance courtesy "ocial media etiHuettes# Eon%t be sur!rised if in few years areters start considering only the new ?ve reactions in their internal metrics for true engagement rate and this forces other social media !latforms to follow suite with similar launches#
" Content!
As any Eigital mareter on his/her biggest !ain !oint and ;Bood content< is bound to be in the to! 5 things to solve/ ee! doing# Biven the relative !oor engagement (com!ared to ies) of
=omments section, new :eactions will !rovide ey insights on which content is woring well for the target audience & enable real time modi?cation#
# Connect!
areters have ?nally ada!ted themselves to the truth of organic reach of - G 5-# 6here is still no magic data cut available which guarantees conversion similar to that of search cam!aigns# :eactions & available data (when Faceboo decides to share) would !rovide enough ho!e & o!timism to generate similar :1$ for social media s!ends too# :eGmareting itself to the select few with desired reactions will hel! increase :1$ signi?cantly# 2rand awareness cam!aigns will also bene?t from this micro targeting o!!ortunity# 37am!le. >olitical !arties might not want to show a candidate%s ad on news feed of those !eo!le who have e7!ressed ;Angry< emotions for similar !revious content# Alternatively, com!anies su!!orting niche s!orts would lie to s!eci?cally target users who e7!ressed ;ove<, ;8ow< for that !articular s!ort, with increased !robability of creating a more close nit community on Faceboo#
$ Convenience!
areters would lie this feature to be integrated on their digital !latforms & would lie to see the same feature being im!lemented for =omments section too#
$magine com!anies Iaunting 77777 Jearts & yyyy 8ow%s instead of te7t based reviews to attract e7isting customers & !ros!ects alie for their !roducts/ solutions on Faceboo# Add the ;2uy on Faceboo< feature to this combination to further reduce the time from Active consideration to Actual !urchase decision# Cnlie la!to!/ desto! users, where these :eactions a!!ear intuitively on hover, $ foresee need for further sim!licity (read !eriodic reminders) being introduced by Faceboo for mobile users to aid its ado!tion#
% Customize!
$n today%s age of !ersonali@ation, !ower to customi@e & choose should remain with the users# areters would love to customi@e these :eactions, either by choosing from the ?ve that suit their content ty!e or by creating their own :eactions from the list of !reGde?ned emotions by Faceboo#
& Compare!
Faceboo has still not restricted users to view their com!etitor%s engagement activity on various reactions and that can be leveraged to suitably modify one%s cam!aign/ content# $t%s only time before the "ocial listening tools ada!t to this change and !uts combined !ressure on Faceboo to allow ca!turing these insights automatically & !rovide easy to com!rehend com!arisons for mareters#
$n the coming months we could see the emergence of a new engagement rate where a ;ove< reaction is eHual to 7 ;ies< and an ;Angry< reaction would mean minus y ;ies<#
7 Culture!
At a fundamental level, the new :eactions feature encourages a =ulture of o!enness, enhances freedom of e7!ression and maes it convenient & fun to use too# >eer !ressure will now gradually force ado!tion from mere ies to ado!ting the new :eactions to e7!ress one self# $n this conte7t, it is heartening to note that Faceboo didn%t yield to !o!ular demand of adding a ;Eislie< button and instead !rovided a variety of reactions which ?nd relevance across the globe (would have !ersonally lied ;Day< o!tion too as that%s the language of millennial but nevertheless)# For every action, there is an eHual and o!!osite reaction and so does for this new feature# 8e all now how 6witter is trying its best to manage 6rolls which has been the bane of most mareters# $n some sense the new ;Angry< reaction on Faceboo can also be !otentially misused by trolls and ee! the otherwise considered safe (mareters have o!tion to disable/ delete !osts/ comments on their !age) Faceboo medium risHuK es!ecially for new entrants# Add to that the growing !rivacy concerns and this new found e7!ression data being misused by Faceboo itself to wilfully mani!ulate its feed (remember the famous e7!eriment few years
bac) or by unscru!ulous mareters, we will have to wait and watch whether the !romise of not sharing this data remains intact or is introduced with certain !reGconditions#
'ummar!
For all those Faceboo users who either hesitated or found !osting comments inconvenient to e7!ress their true emotions, new :eactions will come as a breath of fresh air# 8e will soon see other social !latforms mimicing or adding more customi@ation features to lure mareters & users alie#
*ile increase+ revenue potential is at t*e *eart of t*is c*an,e from ace.ook / 0arketers perspective as a normal ace.ook user let me en2o t*e most convenient wa of expressin, *ow 3 feel 2ust as ou woul+ for t*is article 4o c*eck it out now5
=redits.
6aunc* from ace.ook!
htt!.//newsroom#fb#com/news/04/0/reactionsGnowGavailableG globally/ htt!.//newsroom#fb#com/news/04/0/newsGfeedGfyiGwhatGtheG reactionsGlaunchGmeansGforGnewsGfeed/ 'cience .e*in+ Reactions!
htt!.//www#ibtimes#com/scienceGbehindGfaceboosGnewGreactionsG whyGmarG@ucerbergGsaidGnayGyayGbuttonG50L+ htt!.//www#forbes#com/sites/amitchowdhry/04/0/*/facebooG reactions/M5bb**a0LL*4 ow 6in,uists feel a.out t*e new Reactions!
htt!.//www#wired#com/04/0/linguistsGnotGe7actlyGwowG faceboosGnewGreactions/ "ource for $nfogra!hic. www#wersm#com
