Facebook reactions — a new set of post reaction buttons beyond the “like” — are finally (finally) here, and from the initial, resounding ‘meh’ that echoed across social media, it appears to be a case of too little, too late. The intention behind implementing Facebook reactions, according to a blog post by Facebook product manager Sammi Krug, was to “give you more ways to share your reaction to a post in a quick and easy way.” Immediately, discussion arose surrounding what should or shouldn’t have been included as a reaction. In our patent-pending, premium unscientific office poll technology, we identified some of our most-desired reactions NOT included in Facebooks set. Silicon Valley, take note!
The Side-Eye Reaction
Perfect for those questionable, over-sharing or just plain cringe-worthy posts from high school friends or distant family members that occasionally populate your feed.
Champagne Reaction
Because celebrating with a few pixels is cheaper than popping expensive bottles.
The Yasss Reaction
We all need to just let it out sometimes. This multicontextual agreement/praise reaction would clearly give us all some much-needed life.
Whether or not this new take on their existing communication model catches on, Facebook has quietly opened the door for all sorts of premium user data collection and potential brand opportunities. We can now rethink how we view and contextualize engagement with these new measurements of emotion and intent, and it might only be a matter of time before content strategies need to reflect these new metrics. Advertisers could see some opportunity down the line from branded reactions a la Twitter, which (to date) has implemented 17 branded emojis (albeit at a hefty price tag).
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Culture, Design, The Social Lite, The State of Social