What Small Businesses and Nonprofits Need to Know About Facebook Reactions

No matter if you are sporadic Facebook browser, or an avid lover of the social media platform, you may have noticed the implementation of the new Facebook Reactions feature. This feature allows users to express themselves on posts, beyond just giving it a simple like.

So, what exactly are Facebook Reactions?

Facebook Reactions are an expansion of the Like button. To access these reactions, you simply have to hover over the like button on a post, both on desktop or mobile devices, you will be able to choose from one of six reactions to respond to the post. These reactions can be used on most posts, from posts from pages, along with posts from friends and events.

The 6 reactions are: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry – each with their own individual icon.

As users of Facebook begin to click and choose these reactions on posts, the actions will appear in the page’s notifications.

The implementation of this feature encourages Facebook users to become more interactive and share their emotions with a page’s posts. It allows those followers of a page who have previously been too shy, or do not want to get caught up in the politics of a post, to express themselves more freely. The Facebook Reactions feature also gives those users who were previously unsure on how to react to posts that were about a sad, frustrating or controversial topics and were perhaps uncomfortable about clicking the Like button, the option to use either Sad or Anger reaction to reflect their mood and the tone of the post.

How can Facebook Reactions benefit small businesses and nonprofits?

Facebook Reactions are an excellent way to assist small businesses and nonprofit organisations to receive more information on what their followers think and feel about the posts that they are sharing. This is important as it allows businesses to know if their followers are interested in the content.

How can businesses measure Facebook Reactions?

The kinds of reactions that followers give can be tallied on individual posts, along with Facebook Insights. To view how many users have chosen each kind of reaction, simply hover your mouse over the reactions on the post.

Facebook offers a complete breakdown of reactions by clicking on a posts Facebook Insights and it will show the posts data. This includes an Overview page and the Post Types portion of the Posts tab.

In order to gain an overall view of the reaction engagement, use Facebook Insights and select the Reach tab, then scroll down to view the Reactions, Comments and Shares map.

What can businesses and organisations do with Facebook Reactions?

Here are just some of the ways of how business and nonprofit organizations can utilise Facebook Reactions:

• Businesses can invite their followers to share their true emotions about a specific topic. Businesses simply need to share a question or thought on their Facebook Page and suggest that followers click the Reaction that best reflects their opinion.
• Businesses can use Facebook Reactions to allow their followers to share and express their opinions on a new product or service in a streamlined way.
• If a business is hosting a competition, they can encourage their followers to vote using Facebook Reactions.

No matter how a business or nonprofit organisation uses Facebook Reactions, it is as easy to way have fun with your followers and examine their engagement.