The Facebook 'Dislike Button' Is Here! (Well, Kind Of)

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was experimenting with a ‘dislike button’ in a Q&A on September 15th 2015, stating:

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"I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years. Today is a special day because today is the day I can say we’re working on it and shipping it."

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Three weeks later we are beginning to see early indications of what this experience will actually be like. It was reported earlier in October 2015 that Facebook is testing a new feature called ‘Reactions’ that would allow users to express several different emotions. This would be accomplished through the use of emojis (because who doesn’t love emojis, right?).

This new feature seems to make a lot of sense. Everyone has experienced an awkward situation where someone is dealing with some sort of tragedy and the only emotion you can express is a Like. Until now people have had to Like posts they actually disliked or were sad about in order to show support. After years of pleading for more options, it seems Facebook is finally listening.

Facebook is not the first company to use emojis to express emotion, Buzzfeed and Slack are two of the notable ones that beat them to it. As a marketer, you are probably wondering how this will affect you. We have been discussing it since Mark Zuckerberg first announced a ‘dislike button’ three weeks ago and here are some of the benefits we see. You also need to learn when's the best time to post on facebook for maximum engagement!

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Benefits of Facebook Reactions

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1. More Emotions = Better Understanding: Facebook already knows an incredible amount about their users. Matter of fact, a recent study conducted by Cambridge and Stanford University found that Facebook knows you better than anyone else in the world. With the introduction of more emotions, Facebook will be able to understand its users even more. Additionally, marketers will be able to evaluate how users interact with their content and make adjustments as well.

2. Better Understanding = Better Targeting: As a marketer, Reactions should have you jumping for joy. Over the years Facebook has continued to improve their targeting options, but this will allow for significant improvement on what they currently have. We predict that ‘Reactions’ will allow marketers to target potential leads with even more precision and higher conversion rates. Also, be sure to check out our post on how to schedule posts on Facebook to gain more traffic!

3. Getting Feedback Is Even Easier: Ever wanted to know your followers' opinion about something? In the past companies have posted questions to their Facebook Page and asked followers to comment with their response. Though commenting isn’t overly difficult, many users won’t take the time to do it. Now that users can express their emotions with the click of a button, we think businesses will be able to get opinions from their followers/customers like never before. Also make sure you understand the facebook algorithm 2022 to get the best results.

4. Engagement Will Increase: As we stated before, sometimes ‘Like’ isn’t the right emotion. When a situation like this arises, many users avoid engagement altogether. With more emotions to choose from, we see engagement soaring. What we are not certain about is how Facebook’s algorithm will rank different emotions.

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks to see how ‘Reactions’ affects your Business Page, as well as your personal experience on Facebook. You should also check out our tutorial Facebook ads to learn how to capitalize on this platform. This is a major change to Facebook’s experience, so the marketers that can learn how to leverage it first will see a major return on their investment. We made our predictions but we would love to hear yours. Do you like the idea of ‘Reactions’ to Facebook posts? What benefits or drawbacks to you see from such a feature? Let us know in the comment section below!

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The Bottom Line

Although the Facebook emojis buttons may seem like an insignificant detail, it's always nice to have options. These buttons let your audience express how they feel without even typing a word! and who knows how long it will be before Facebook makes an actual dislike button – probably not anytime soon.