Stats on Facebook’s reaction buttons (and why it matters for your brand)

American’s love to spread the “love”

So, I hate to break it to you, folks, but I don’t JUST write awe-inspiring freelance content from my couch in pajamas all day long. I do, in fact, have a full-time job too, and what I do 40+ hours a week makes me kind of an expert on this Facebook reactions thing, and the FB thing in general.

I’m a social media strategist for a real estate company, and if anyone understands how important (and difficult) it is to keep the engagement up on a business page, it’s me. On the daily, I manage about 40 different pages, varying in size from large corporate pages to smaller, single-agent ones.

Making the cut with EdgeRank

It is HARD work getting people to stay active with real estate pages, especially when you don’t offer a product that everyone loves. Coke, Nutella and even Nike offer THINGS that many people love, but when was the last time you LOVED a page that provides a service? Can you imagine hitting the love button on a funeral home page? Even if you loved the customer service they provided, it doesn’t seem right… right?

First, I think it’s important to note that Facebook has made keeping your business page relevant and engaging an absolute necessity, thanks to a FANTASTIC (did you catch the sarcasm there) new algorithm called EdgeRank.

This “smart” method will wipe a company’s posts clean off any follower’s feed if that friend doesn’t engage with the business page on a fairly regular basis.

Thus, making your life as a consumer wonderful because you aren’t bored to death by all my real estate jargon, but also making the business owner’s life a constant battle that generally ends with the thought, “holy crap, what the hell do I post?”

We like it, we love it (we want some more of it)

Thanks to the new reaction options, people can choose from a spectrum of emotions to respond to my posts, and well, based on the great little Insights tool on any business page, I can clearly see the buttons are catching on. Bottom line, people enjoy using them, which transfers over to how frequently they react to ANY page or post. However, I still have quite the way to go if I plan to catch up with the most loved company on FB. C’mon, who doesn’t adore Nutella? Twenty- three percent of the company’s Reactions are pure and complete love. Not a shocker.

Though the “like” button still reigns supreme, generally speaking, we LOVE the love button, and well, why wouldn’t we? The reaction buttons allow you to engage in a more fitting way with content. Without having to comment, you can respond with a variety of feelings that more appropriately fit situations. If you thought something was lovable, likable, hilarious, infuriating or shocking, there is simply no need now to react with more than a simple click.

Enough love to go around

Though the love button is the most popularly used new reaction, people all over the world are jumping on board with the smiley options too.

If the statistics don’t say enough, let me reiterate – the reaction buttons are significant in both a person’s personal and professional life. Now you can tell a friend just how much you enjoyed the silly picture of their cat, AND you can post a great hyperlocal article and feel the love on your company’s page too. From a business standpoint, receiving an abundance of the “love” reaction is definitely indicative of a job well done.

#FBReactions