Not for long, Facebook Reactions.

Over the coming months I’m going to keeping a close eye on the reaction to Facebook Reactions. I’m going to be talking to a couple of experts and a load of users to build a point of view on this change.

My hypothesis is that Facebook Reactions won’t last and will be removed or significantly changed in the coming months. The ‘Like’ button is that rarest of things – a socially norm’d digital behavior. The only other one I can really point too is ‘to Google it’. Changing it is akin to New Coke in the spring of 1985… and we all know what happened there.

Cringe:

Changing the Like’s single-minded purpose to a range of reactions complicates things. No longer is Like a simple indicator of positive sentiment. The seven Reactions are a range of sentiments, positive. subjective and negative. This makes it harder for the users (or brands for that matter) to get a gauge on the support from their friends.

By offering a range of sentiment to be given are we now, as viewers. going to be expected to remark on each and every entry in our feed? This complexity I believe will result in a reduction in overall feed engagement and Facebook will be quick to react to this. I’ll keep you all posted.