44 million posts from 218,289 brands in every country were analyzed. The study covered the period from January 1 to April 30, 2018. Please note that this study’s findings are based on a sample set. This study found that 12.1% of all interactions on Facebook are likes.
Facebook launched a new series of ‘Reactions’ in early 2016 in addition to the ‘Like’ button, giving users more ways to share a range of emotions on content across the network. The new Reactions feature, which includes emoji-like faces and one heart, was not used much by users. Only a very small percentage of all interactions on Facebook are reactions of love, happiness, anger, wow, or sadness. Likes, shares, and comments are still the most important thing. Now, two years later, things have changed – considerably.
Let’s start by looking at the Reactions to get a better idea of what we should focus on in this report. This is in case you do not look at Facebook often and live on another planet.
The usage of Facebook Reactions was investigated within a few different countries as well as multiple industries. The findings of the study could help to explain some of the significant cultural differences in Facebook usage and how it affects social media marketing.
So, let’s jump straight into data. You might be surprised by what you see.
Now that’s ‘wow’ – new Reaction usage has increased by 433%
The new Facebook Reactions are being used more and more, accounting for 12.8% of all interactions now. The percentage of interactions made up by Facebook Reactions has increased since the last study done in June 2016. In the last study, Facebook Reactions made up 5.8% of total interactions, which is a significant increase from the 2.4% of interactions in the study done in April 2016. This text illustrates that the usage of Reactions has increased significantly since it was first introduced, and has continued to grow steadily since then. 433% is a significant increase over a period of two years.
Since Facebook introduced Reactions about two years ago, users have become increasingly comfortable expressing their feelings with the expanded options. The popularity and quantity of content on the site has also grown. The vast number of people using Facebook – over 2 billion – means that the way users scroll through their News Feeds, past personal posts, paid adverts, and media articles, has had an effect on the emotions that are expressed through the use of Reactions.
. Although Facebook has been mainly used in the past to measure how popular a person or thing is based on the amount of ‘likes’ it gets, this is no longer the case. Facebook is now being used for much more than just that.
The ‘Like’ button on Facebook is one of the most iconic features of the site. Although the thumbs-up gesture is still used occasionally, it appears to be declining in popularity among Facebook users, who have found other ways to express their feelings more often. The increase in use of Reactions is probably causing the decrease in use of words.
In a study from 2016, it was found that people were more likely to ‘like’ something than any other reaction. This was consistent in a follow up study from the same year. This is surprising considering how much the new Reactions were used in such a short time. But this year? This isn’t good news, as the percentage of ‘Likes’ has decreased significantly to 61.2%.
Where’s the love – ‘Love’ is down but laughter’s up
At one point, the ‘Love’ Reaction was the most commonly used of the new Reactions. The first study showed that 50% of the total new Reactions were used. ‘Love’ was still the most popular new Reaction two months later, but it had decreased to 43.2%. ‘Haha’ was in second place at 25.7%, overtaking ‘angry’.
Although “love” is declining in usage, it is still a popular word. Maybe laughter is the best medicine. The number of people using the “Haha” reaction on Facebook has increased significantly, to the point where it is now used almost as often as the “love” reaction.
Sharing is caring – but are comments more valuable?
It’s difficult to say which one is better because they are both considered Facebook interactions.
Kim and Ying claim that social media platforms place less value on ‘liking’ something than on sharing or commenting because liking only requires one click, while commenting or sharing requires more effort. Both require extra commitment or cognitive effort. When a user clicks on the share button, their activity is broadcasted to their News Feed as well as to their profile page. In this sense, ‘share’ is even associated with self-presentation.
The academic research says that “liking” is the lowest level of social media behavior, while “sharing” is the highest. It also finds that “commenting” is in the middle. It is easier to get users to like a post than it is to get them to comment on it. The goal that businesses most want to achieve is sharing, but it is also the most difficult to achieve from audiences. In other words, to get people to share your content, you need to start by posting content that is interesting and engaging.
We wanted to see if there was a difference in value between the three interactions – likes, comments and shares. We found some contrasting results!
Marketers place higher value on “shares” than on “comments”. A study by Searchmetrics found that Facebook shares have a slight correlation to Google organic ranking. This suggests that obtaining Facebook shares would be challenging. However, Facebook data indicates that users prefer ‘sharing’ over commenting.
This could mean that Facebook now values comments more than shares. It is difficult to say definitively what the most popular sentiment expressed through comments is, as there is such a wide range of emotions that can be conveyed through this form of communication. The addition of new Reactions provides an easy way to see how different groups of people respond to content on Facebook. We decided to see how this affects different countries across the globe.
In addition to better targeting, Facebook can use data from its Reaction buttons for other purposes.
I.e., with insight from Reactions, Facebook can:
1. Collect More Emotional Data
Reactions are a part of emotional data, which is a trend that ad tech is using to gather signals from sources like facial expressions and emoticons to ultimately be used for better targeting. This means that Facebook is also trying to get a closer look at how users react to advertising, which could be used to figure out the best consumer, device, and time for advertising content.
“This is a smart way to see if there is any merit to grouping content in this manner,” Moores said. “It’s a start. I don’t think anyone knows where it goes. What if there was a way to know how you are feeling and where you are emotionally? That is what wearables are for. It’s not only finding the right advertisement for the right time, but it’s also about finding the right context. I’m getting frustrated because I want to receive that message.
Bryan Segal said that the addition of emoji-like buttons provides Facebook with more emotional intelligence, rather than just quantitative data like the number of Likes.
2. Adjust its Algorithm so Sentiment is a Ranking Factor
Oren Greenberg, the founder of digital marketing consultancy Kurve, believes Reactions are an easy way for Facebook to get started with sentiment analysis. He expects Facebook will add Reactions to its algorithm as a ranking factor, which would impact the posts users see.
Narayan said that Facebook could make its News Feed algorithm better by including Reactions in it.
This statement suggests that Facebook will continue to refine its algorithm to better identify the things users like, love, and respond negatively to. Doing so will give advertisers a clearer idea of how users feel about specific content, allowing them to better target their ads.
Looking at user responses in more detail could allow you to optimize your posts better, as well as giving you better data on what content is most popular with your audience. This could result in better content and more visibility, said Jacobs.
3. Better Segment Users
Additionally, by categorizing emotions, Facebook will have a better understanding of users’ moods and preferences and will be able to segment users based on these reactions, Moores said. This means that Facebook can show each type of user the content that is most relevant to them in the future.
Jitesh Keswani, co-founder of e-Intelligence, said that Facebook could use data about people’s emotional states to choose what kind of posts and ads to show in their News Feeds.
4. Offer Emotional Targeting
The social network could use emotional data for ad targeting, which would allow advertisers to target users based on the specific emotional reactions they had to a type of content, said David Erickson, vice president of online marketing for public relations firm Karwoski & Courage.
Brooks says that Facebook users who have reacted angrily to articles about Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or President Obama could be targeted by conservative political campaigns.
5. Better Serve More Relevant Content in News Feeds
Reactions could be used to change what content users see in their News Feeds.
Adam Binder, the founder of Creative Click Media, a digital marketing agency, has said that the Like button on Facebook was originally introduced as a way for the site to collect data about the kinds of content users were interested in, so that it could continue to show them similar posts.
Facebook plans to use the new Reactions to collect more detailed information about users. This information will be used to show users content that is more relevant to them. If a Facebook user interacts with a lot of posts that make them laugh, Facebook will start to show that user more funny posts and ads for comedies.
Jamie Hill, the CEO of an online marketplace for search ads, believes that Facebook will get better at understanding users’ preferences and emotions over time. This could theoretically lead to the social media platform adjusting users’ News Feeds accordingly.
Mike Coughlin, the founder of an advertising agency called Digital Blue Creative, said that Facebook can use data to customize the News Feed better, which would create a better user experience and make users spend more time on Facebook.
6. Adjust Which Brands and Ads Users See
This could mean that ads which evoke positive reactions from users would be shown more often.
Justin Emig, who is the director of search marketing at Web Talent Marketing, said that there is potential in adjusting the advertisers that appear in the News Feed to match the users’ moods and interests.
Emig said that if Facebook sees that a particular user or brand is getting a lot of positive reaction from people, it could use that data to make that brand look better in the eyes of consumers by giving them better personalized content. If someone is angry about something they saw on Facebook, the site could use that information to either suppress that person’s posts in the future or keep them high up on the News Feed because it is a topic the user is interested in.
7. Offer Ads Served Next to Posts That Elicit Positive Responses
Additionally, Facebook Reaction buttons offer advertisers the ability to serve ads next to posts that users have reacted positively to.
According to Narayan, even if an advertisement is not related in content to a post that makes people angry or sad, it could still make them psychologically less open to the advertisement.
8. Encourage Brands to Boost Posts That Get Loves or Wows
Facebook could also encourage advertisers to promote their most popular posts to ensure that the content that users like the most is seen by the widest possible audience.
This means that, in the future, Facebook could automatically boost posts that it predicts will be popular. Paid promotion of a post will begin after it reaches a certain number of positive reactions.
Conclusion
What is your opinion on the marketing potential of emotional data? Is this the future of targeting? Is it possible to read too much into someone’s heart, smiley face, and tear?
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