The Pros & Cons of Facebook’s New Reactions

We’ve all been there – your friend posts a Facebook status about something unfortunate that’s happened to them. You want to show your support, but you don’t want to leave a comment, so you hit the “Like” button instead. Now, you’re worried that they’ll think you’re happy about their misfortune. Luckily, Facebook has resolved this issue by releasing a Reactions feature that allows you to choose from an additional five emotions: “haha”, “sad”, “angry”, “wow”, and “love”. Let’s take a look at some Facebook reactions pros and cons of this new feature.

Pros:

1. to get you even more interaction from your readers, and more interaction means more visibility

2. Younger audiences enjoy apps and sites that are interactive and personalized. This new feature may help you target a younger crowd with a more personal touch.

3. Gives you better feedback on how your audience is reacting to your content or ads. If you were going for “haha” reactions and got “angry” instead, you know you need to adjust your approach.

Cons:

1. Reactions could make responding to unhappy fans more difficult. If a person was angry in the comments, you could respond with something to try to appease them. If your content starts getting a bunch of “angry” reactions, there’s not much you can do.

2. Facebook’s news feed algorithm could potentially change with the new reactions. You might find that you become less visible when you get negative reactions, which puts a lot of pressure on your social media team.

3. Tracking impressions, clicks, and actions an ad gets can be a complicated process to start with. Add five more reactions, and it might become even more difficult.

If you use them to your advantage, Facebook’s reactions can give you helpful insight into how your content is performing and how you can improve it. It also allows for more interaction and personalization from your audience.

However, you might find it hard to deal with the passive-aggressive “angry” reactions that you can’t reply to as easily as an angry comment. We’ll have to wait and see how the reactions affect ad tracking and the news feed algorithm, but for now, we’ll enjoy this new way of expressing ourselves and giving cute cat videos the “love” they deserve.

If you have more inquiries about Facebook and other social media, feel free to reach out to us here.