Facebook’s new emoji’s will have you feeling all sorts of ways

We’ve all been there, scrolling on your Facebook newsfeed and your friend posts about losing a loved one.  Do you “like” it?  Or do you just leave it because you don’t actually “like” it since who actually likes it when sad events happen?

Well, gone are the days of those awkward “likes” because today, Facebook launched emoji reactions.  Facebook users can still “like” and post comments , but can now express love, happiness, sadness, anger, or when they are wow’d with their new emojis (Tan, 2016).

Source: Facebook

By holding down the holding down the “like” button on mobile or hovering over the icon on desktop, gives users an expanded menu allowing them to choose from six different animated emoji “Reactions” (Chaykowski, 2016).

These reactions are not meant to express the full range of human reactions, but Facebook wanted to give people a fast and simple way to express thoughts or feelings in a positive, supportive way” (Guyunn, 2016).

“Not every moment you want to share is happy,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don’t like their posts. People want to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions” (Guynn, 2016).

But what does this mean for businesses on Facebook?

Businesses before could only gauge how users were feeling through comments, but with these new reactions, they are able to aggregate more UGC (user generated content). For example, news outlets will be able to garner more engagement from content surround politics or even international affairs. Corporations will be able to take these data and implement them into their marketing communications plans. Advertisers will be able to pinpoint what we’re passionate, angry, or interested in based on these data, whereas previously companies had no idea what users disliked, or any other emotions.

So, how do you feel about these new emojis?  Love?  Happy?  Sad? Angry?  Wow’d?

Sources:

Costine, J. (2016, February 24).  Facebook Enhances Everyone’s Like With Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry Buttons.  TechCrunch.  Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/24/facebook-reactions/?ncid=rss

Chaykowski, K. (2016, February 24).  Facebook No Longer Just Has A ‘Like’ Button, Thanks To Global Launch of Emoji ‘Reactions.’ Forbes.  Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2016/02/24/facebook-no-longer-just-has-a-like-button-thanks-to-global-launch-of-emoji-reactions/#53c62074994c

Guynn, J. (2016, February 24). Meet Facebook’s new emoting emojis: Love, haha, wow, sad, and angry.  USA Today.  Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/02/24/facebook-reactions-launch/80803468/

Tan, Y.Z. (2016, February 24).  Are You Liking Facebook’s New Emojis?  Scrap That.  Do You ‘Wow’ Them?  NPR.  Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/02/24/467936392/are-you-liking-facebooks-new-emojis-scrap-that-do-you-wow-them