Photo credit: Alias Noa via Wikimedia
Facebook is receiving little reaction to its new emoji reactions buttons.
Since February, users can select from a range of emoji options that describe their feelings about a post, including love, ha-ha, yay, wow, sad and angry. As with likes, Facebook displays the number of reactions for each emoji on a post or photo.
An analysis of 130,000 Facebook posts with a large number of followers including brands, celebrities, politicians and sports stars showed that almost all reactions to their posts were the traditional likes, according to eMarketer. New emoji reactions accounted for just 3 percent of the total. Of that small portion, a little more than half were love emoji, a feeling very similar to like. Fewer than 1 percent of reactions overall were negative.
Although people may simply need more time to get used to the new emoji introduced at the end of February, the muted reaction to the buttons may be due to the lack of negative expressions, specifically a dislike button.
Facebook declined to add a dislike button despite users’ repeated requests for one. In October poll by YouGov Omnibus, 38 percent of survey respondents favored adding a dislike button, compared to 30 percent who wanted reactions emoji. Facebook avoided a dislike button in an intentional plan to keep relatively positive. There is an angry button and a sad button.
Limited Value in Measuring Emoji Counts
Measurement experts say the emoji provide brands an additional monitoring tool for gauging sentiment, although they caution against reading too much into the emoji. For instance, the emoji reactions could warn PR of an emerging crisis. The low response rates for the new emoji undercut the validity of measuring the responses for sentiment. Within the standard PR measurement matrix for tone or sentiment, a ‘dislike’ button would be useful. Facebook, however, is unlikely to be concerned with PR measurement aspects.
Facebook said it introduced the buttons to provide users more ways to express themselves. Its other agenda is to collect more data to improve its news feed algorithm and improve data for its advertisers.
Why Facebook Dislikes a Dislike Button
“A dislike button on Facebook would dissuade people from posting, liking, and sharing as freely as they might otherwise. For a company that trades in data about users’ behavior, more behavior is almost always better,” writes Slate Senior Technology Writer Will Oremus.
In addition, businesses that advertise on the network or run sponsored content would undoubtedly dislike viewers posting their dislike.
In an amazing assertion at a company Q&A session in 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believed a dislike button would be bad for society at large. “Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to say, ‘That thing isn’t good.’ And that’s not something that we think is good for the world. So we’re not going to build that,” he said.
The problem is that lack of a dislike button smothers honest exchange of ideas and critical thinking on the largest driver of traffic to news and opinion sites, Oremus argues. Facebook’s decision solidifies its position as a network for heart-warming photos of babies and birthday parties as opposed to serious discussions about real-time news and serious issues.
“It’s part of the reason that, at a time when Twitter was ablaze with debates about race, the use of force, the militarization of the police, and the rights of protesters in a democracy, Facebook was drowning in ice bucket challenges,” Oremus writes.
Bottom Line: The public’s sluggish response to Facebook’s new reaction buttons may be due to a lack of a dislike button. Although adding the button could increase marketing and PR measurement capabilities, Facebook has decided against adding such an emoji.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
