Today, when I came back from  a trip, I opened my facebook and found that the like button was looking a bit different.It had a blue icon below it! And a new icon beside the blue one.When I moved the mouse over the like button a new sub-menu opened with 5 new types of Facebook Reactions icons.That specific blue icon, and the new heart-shaped one, are part of the Facebook Reactions the company has just launched. Along with giving “likes”, users will now be able to express their feelings through 5 additional reactions: Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. And this new addition opens doors of new opportunities for marketers.Let’s have a look at five benefits marketers can get from the brand new Facebook Reactions:

1. Let Your Users Express ThemselvesDoes it need any explanation? Maybe one example :There is this page I really like: Awkward Yeti. But my favorite posts from this page used to get the same type of reaction like a moderately. Not anymore! The posts I like more are likely get “Love / Wow / Haha ” reactions.Similarly, businesses will also be able to see their users’ reactions in greater detail. What was merely a like 1 week ago now can be any of the 4 available reactions. What used to be ignored now might get an “Angry” reaction. Be it positive or negative, businesses will benefit from knowing it in a detailed way.

2. Know Your Customers!After people will start using different types of emotions to a Facebook post, marketers will be able to find out who is getting angry with the post or who is loving it. If the target group of the business gets angered, the business will know that they need to make changes along the way. If the target group loves a specific type of post, the business will learn a key thing about their target group’s taste and preferences. Learning more about customers will now become easier.There aren’t many marketers who don’t want to do that.

3. Do Your Target Customers Love You?Don’t keep a locked door between your business and customersAs a business, you need to increase the number of people who are in love with your brand(s). Do you have enough people who absolutely loves your brand? Are you making enough Change Nucleus through your business? With the love/wow buttons, you will start getting an idea about that. You diehard fans will start giving Love/ Wow to your posts while regular fans will stick to the like option. So if you are just playing safe and not creating enough emotional ripples, you will get a hint and a chance to change course now.

4.Why Are They Leaving You?One problem Facebook pages often face is the loss of fans / likers. But why are they leaving the page? Facebook reactions might help getting an answer to that. Users who love the page/ business but are leaving for irritating posts now have the option to express their discontent, with minimal effort ,before leaving. Though the negative effects of posts were measurable before reactions as well, reactions can now add a new dimension to it. It will also allow businesses to check if they are losing people from their target group or not.

5.Stakes Are Higher NowThis is also a wake-up call for businesses. Negative emotions can be expressed now, and any wrong move can have major repercussions. Understanding followers’ moods have become more important than ever. For example, if a sportsman performs poorly in an important match and publishes a post afterwards, that post is likely to capture the angry reactions. Pages which keep on bombarding people with updates will now get a share of people’s annoyance. So Facebook marketing strategy has to be managed very carefully from now onwards.This will also mean that smart marketing moves will be the ones with the highest praises. So this extra bit of being careful will eventually lead marketers towards developing better campaigns.

Facebook Reactions : Flood of OpportunitiesFacebook Reactions will bring a lot of change to digital marketing in the coming days. Though the people who like to troll in social media will somewhat dilute the effect of it, Facebook Reactions will still enable marketers to get more acquainted with customers’ needs and wants.