The importance of expression: Do social media reactions increase user engagement?
People want to express themselves now more than ever. Social media reactions and interactive content are some of the best practices to increase user engagement.
User engagement on social media refers to how many users interact with your posts rather than just viewing your posts and scrolling along. User engagement is an important metric you should pay attention to in your paid social strategy for two main reasons:
- It is a good indicator of consumer loyalty, user experience, and satisfaction. Therefore, you can gather information about your content and how well your users respond to it from just one metric.
- User engagement is also very important for social media algorithms because it tells the platform your content is interesting to users and this will lead to a higher chance of your content being shown to a larger audience; boosting your reach and awareness.
Want to find out how social media reactions increase user engagement? Read on.
A four-part history of social media reactions
To begin, Facebook saw the first increase in user engagement
Social media reactions were originally introduced by Facebook back in 2016 after the audience demanded to express their feelings rather than just a ‘like’. Facebook hoped reactions would increase user engagement.
After introducing the new reactions (‘love’, ‘wow’, ‘haha’, ‘sad’, and ‘angry’) a study found Facebook post-engagement increased from 2.4% in 2016 to 12.8% in 2018. This shows that interaction has a positive impact on user engagement. Given that reactions have become a staple feature of Facebook, it is no surprise other platforms followed suit.
After that, LinkedIn and Instagram followed suit
The professional networking platform, LinkedIn, was next to introduce post reactions. After analysing 1-2 word comments and asking members for feedback on potential reactions, they decided to introduce ‘celebrate, love, insightful and curious’.
Instagram allows you to react to stories with a range of emojis, allowing users to provide instant feedback less formally than commenting on a post or messaging directly. With Instagram stories, it is vital to post content that encourages engagement. Therefore, simply asking your audience to react based on their opinion is an effective way to use reactions to increase user engagement.
Then things reactions got negative
Both Facebook and Instagram present users with the opportunity to react negatively to posts. However, LinkedIn does not. Although this may be because of the professional nature of the platform, it could be useful to brands to better understand their audience.
Now, reactions are everywhere
In 2024, almost all platforms offer reactions. They’re even in airport bathrooms; users can give feedback on the cleanliness of the facility using emoji feedback machines!
So, why do social media reactions increase user engagement?
1. People like to express how they feel
Users don’t always just ‘like’ content. People experience a range of emotions when viewing content so being able to express those feelings is important to users. In the first year, Facebook released reactions, there were more than 800 million reactions a day. It’s clear people love to share their opinions online.
Having a range of reactions also lets people engage with posts without their responses being misconstrued. For example, when ‘like’ was the only option, users may have chosen not to engage if they didn’t actually ‘like’ or agree with the content. Now they can openly celebrate or disagree with content they are more likely to engage as the reactions give a true depiction of their feelings.
2. Giving people a voice shows them you care
Customer loyalty builds when customers feel they resonate and connect with a brand. Analysing reactions and responding to them is a brilliant way for companies to show they value customer opinion and actively listen to their community. The more you value and respond to customer reactions, the more you improve the customer experience and customer engagement.
3. Reactions can start discussions between users
Creating content that relies on social media reactions can be a great way of opening conversations between users on your post, which increases your visibility and user engagement.
For example, you create a post asking viewers to choose their favourite product of yours and a graphic that shows each different product with a corresponding reaction. Viewers can then react based on which product is their favourite. This could then lead to users following up their reaction with a comment and having a discussion with other users. Learn Basics did a similar post to the one described and generated 15,000 reactions and 500+ comments on one post. This just goes to show, it works!
Finally, what does this mean for advertising?
Social media is becoming increasingly interactive; users are calling out for ways to express themselves. As well as reactions, social media content can include a range of interactive elements: Polls. quizzes and questions.
With more interaction, comes more user engagement, and with that comes increased brand visibility and awareness.
You can also use social media reactions and interactive content as a way to gain direct, quick, and large amounts of feedback on what makes great content. As we said before, listening to your audience is a key way to build a loyal community.
Want to know how you can be more interactive with your content and increase user engagement?
Our team here at Embryo can support your business as you build and develop your paid social strategy.
