The Rise of Reactions in the Newsfeed
Facebook is reportedly prioritizing reactions over likes in their Newsfeed algorithm, but is that true?
As social media professionals will recall, Facebook added five "reactions" -
love, haha, wow, sad and angry - as an alternative to the thumbs-up like button and likely as a means to placate those demanding a "thumbs-down" option.
Prioritizing reactions over likes makes a great deal of sense for Facebook. Updating its algorithm in this way enables the network to display posts to others more prominently in the news feed. According to the company, a reaction is a stronger indicator that you want to see similar posts to one you like (based on engagement data, of course).
It's hard to imagine that Facebook won't immediately begin monetizing the newsfeed based on this information - in fact, I give it less than a year, perhaps with a feature that will let advertisers promote their goods or services based upon the average emotional response of users or some such metric.
Facebook also revealed that the United States ranks eighth on a list of the countries that use reactions the most. It's preceded by Mexico, Chile, Suriname, Greece, Paraguay, Costa Rica, and Belize, and followed by Brazil and Uruguay.
