The new Facebook Emoticons: Thumbs up for Facebook advertising?


Facebook logo thumbs up like transparent SVG
Last wednesday Facebook rolled out it’s new emoticons. A reaction to the complaint that there was no ‘dislike’ button, these new emoticons have been tested in Ireland and Spain since October. Now they’ve been released globally.

In addition to the usual’Like’ response you can now use ‘love’, ‘haha’, ‘sad’, ‘wow’, and ‘angry’ tags. To access these new emoticons just hold down the ‘Like’ button on your mobile device or hover above the ‘Like’ button on a desktop computer and the new emoticons will appear. Then you just tap one of the buttons to add the selected icon to the post.

Generally these new options are seen as a good thing. However there is some potential for confusion. During testing there was a ‘yay’ button, but that was dropped as it emerged people didn’t really understand what it represented. Sooner or later some disaster or tragic event will occur and people will want to express how they feel. The ‘sad’ emoticon would seem the obvious response, but it’s expected the ‘love’ emoticon will also see excessive use in this circumstance and will hopefully be an expression of sympathy for the victims and relatives, rather than a ‘I love it’ reaction.

However the new icons don’t only represent an opportunity to better express ourselves. There’s also the use of the emoticons to gather data about how we react to posts. Advertisers will be able to use this data to improve targeting and deliver more effective advertising campaigns.

This data is not available now. Facebook have not revealed when they will make it accessible. Currently every emoticon that is used to respond to an advert will be counted as a ‘Like’. This seems a strange decision as it means for now Facebook will be assuming that you want to see more of the same type of content, even if you’ve used the ‘angry’ icon. Facebook have said they will decide later how the new reactions will affect a person’s newsfeed.

Advertisers were hoping they would be able to take advantage of the new emoticons sooner. For example, you can imagine how useful it would be to have a more accurate way of measuring responses to political advertisements in an American Presidential election year. Each campaign could more easily target people who didn’t like seeing posts from or about a political opponent.

The new icons would also help tweak an advertising campaign. Advertisers could check that an intentionally humorous ad was getting mainly ‘haha’ reactions, or that an ad they assumed would be favourably received was not getting too many ‘angry’ responses. It could also influence ad placement, with advertisers monitoring the icons placed on posts near their sponsored post and moving it away from posts getting’angry’ or ‘sad’ reactions and placing them nearer ones with more positive reactions. This would bring a new dimension to split testing.

Facebook receives over 96% of its total revenue from advertising. Presumably the more information an advertiser has about how we use these new reactions buttons, the better targeted we will be. This means an ad campaign can be made more effective, and that means advertisers will spend more money with FaceBook. I really can’t see this information being kept from advertisers for too long.

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16 responses to “The new Facebook Emoticons: Thumbs up for Facebook advertising?”

  1. I’ve never thought about the advertising aspect of these new emoticons, but you’ve spelled them out perfectly. FB is definitely making bigger strides than any other platform out there, and I’m excited to see what they’ll come up with next.

    Thanks for sharing this David.

  2. Hi David, first time over here and a nice post about these
    new facebook emoticons. Which will bring more emotion into
    Facebook marketing for sure.

    Thanks for sharing

    James Hughes

  3. Hi David, some insightful stuff as to how to use these new emoticons and as to how Facebook will progress them in the future. It will be good to see accurate stats on the use of these and how Facebook will respond to them once they separate the data. Good post!!

    • Thanks Terry. Some stats would be interesting and they could even give some unexpected insights and commentary regarding events.
      My favourite stat this week is that according to Google there has been a 1500% jump in activity for the search term ‘how to move to Canada’ since Mr Trump has been doing so well. I expect Facebook stats could be just as revealing.

  4. I knew they had bigger plans than simply offering new ways to react. I’m an advocate of a Dislike button, but Zuckerberg has already said it will never happen.

    Barring that, I like the new reaction buttons. I’ve never liked the idea of hitting Like when someone tells me about a death in the family. At least now we can react with sadness or anger at an update.

    Good post, David.

    • Thanks for commenting Bradley. I guess a Dislike button offers too many opportunities to demoralise Facebook users, which would make the platform less popular. Obviously not what they’re after. However the new emoticons are certainly a way forward for better communication.

  5. Nice thought process David, I’m of the opinion that Facebook does nothing unless they can see a way to make money from it, and that is definitely the reason behind the new emoticons, which is why i shall only be using the like button

  6. Hey David,
    I have never read such an interesting and full of facts post regarding new emoticons you have shared. Facebook is biggest market place today lets see how they progress them in future. I like the reactions we can now show our real response to any facebook post.Liked it!!

    Thanks

    • Thanks Jenie. Yes, I’m sure the ability to show a more accurate representation of how people feel about Facebook posts is going to be very popular.

  7. There are always some icons needed to respond with emotions and truly you have given you best to describe it.. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post!!

  8. That seems to be an amazing article we need all icons to express our emotions while chatting.. digital world!! thanks for explaining this better..!!

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