How Facebook Reactions Impact Your Brand’s Social Media Strategy

After several months of waiting for global roll-out of Facebook Reactions to Newsfeeds, the emotion-focused emoji that serve as an add-on to the Facebook Like button have launched in the U.S. As marketers, you may have lots of questions about how this may impact your current or future strategies on this channel. While a change to this network shouldn’t turn your social media strategy upside down (not if you’ve developed a proper strategy, that is), there are things to consider when the largest social network makes a change this visible.

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Please Don’t Report Every “Haha”

While individual Reaction metrics will be included in a brand’s Facebook Page Insights, there’s no need to give a detailed report for every single Reaction, nor is there a need to set specific goals for individual Reactions. Each Reaction is simply one more form of engagement. You aren’t setting goals for all positive/negative/neutral mentions on other branded channels, are you? If I had to guess, I would say you probably don’t even give YouTube dislikes/thumbs down a second thought. Then avoid setting an unnecessary metric for this one form of engagement. It won’t tell a complete story anyways.

Don’t Ignore the Sentiment

Now, I’m not saying calculate all of the Reactions as engagements and ignore the added information you now have access to. If your content is routinely receiving “Love” and/or “Angry” Reactions, then that may be an important thing to consider. It shouldn’t dictate the strategy, but it may play a part in the content you’re publishing or the target audiences you’re selecting when you boost the content. Sentiment has always been an important thing to consider on all social networks. This change simplifies the way consumers can tell you what they want and what they like, helping marketers evaluate marketing efforts.

Ignore the Trolls

As long as the Internet allows users to sit behind a computer screen, trolls will look for ways to upset the status quo. You may post the most fabulous piece of content that perfectly positions your brand and is loved by many. There will almost always be a single Angry reaction. (And look on the bright side, maybe it stopped them from leaving a nasty comment instead!) Chances are your targeting isn’t perfect. Take it for what it is and consider the total engagements, comments and actions on a larger level to really understand your marketing efforts.

So, enjoy the new Facebook Reactions without panicking over the repercussions. Resist the urge to ask people outright to”love” your content, and continue making social media marketing one piece of the larger brand marketing strategy.



Ignite Social Media