Advertisers React to Facebook’s New “Reactions” Feature

If you’re on Facebook as often as we are, you’ve probably noticed a pretty big change in the last week… and this change is creating significant waves across the Internet, especially among advertisers.The social media giant recently launched “Facebook Reactions” for all its users across the globe. The new feature appears on posts, giving users the option to express themselves in many different ways. Previously, users were limited to only “Liking” comments and posts.“We’ve been listening to people and know that there should be more ways to easily and quickly express how something you see in News Feed makes you feel. That’s why today we are launching Reactions, an extension of the Like button, to give you more ways to share your reaction to a post in a quick and easy way,” Facebook wrote in its announcement.An Advertiser’s DreamAdding Reactions to a post is easy for users, but according to a recent article from Wired Magazine, the simple gesture of adding an emotion expressing Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, or Angry to a post is a game changer for advertisers – and we mean that in a good way.“This is a major change to the way we analyze [brands’] audiences and our work,” Jason Stein, the founder and CEO of social media agency Laundry Service told Wired. “It really overhauls how you analyze your Facebook channel.”By examining the way large groups of users specifically react to Facebook content, advertisers now have the ability to recalibrate their future ad campaigns almost automatically. Chris Tuff, executive vice president and director of business for the ad agency 22squared told the publication that the change was a breath of fresh air and a big step in the right direction.