Facebook Is Testing Empathetic Emoji To Go Beyond The Like Button

Facebook is finally moving beyond the Like.

The social network announced today that it will begin testing six emoji to enable people to react to posts with emotions other than a simple like. Now, Facebook users will be able to express love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger with a quick click or tap.

The new feature will start testing today in Ireland and Spain before an expected rollout in the rest of the world later this year. The move isn’t a surprise. Facebook users have been begging the social network for a dislike button for years, and last month CEO Mark Zuckerberg said to expect a test soon. Except, Zuckerberg said, it wouldn’t be a dislike button but something that didn’t lead to a situation where people were downvoting posts.

Emoji are an obvious solution, one that already it being used by publishers like BuzzFeed and communications services like Slack and by Facebook users who drop stickers into comments.

Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, explained in a Facebook post today:

“As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun. Starting today Ireland and Spain can start loving, wow-ing, or expressing sympathy to posts on Facebook by hovering or long-pressing the Like button wherever they see it.”

The emoji options will appear across mobile and desktop versions of Facebook on posts from friends, Pages or advertisers. People pressing or hovering over the Like button will be presented with the emoji options. There will be no option to turn off the feature on posts.

For brands and publishers, the new feature will provide richer data about how people are reacting to their content. It will also give Facebook more detailed information on user preferences, which no doubt will get fed into the algorithm that determines what people see in their News Feeds.

Here’s a Facebook video showing the new feature in action:

Today we’re launching a pilot test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun. Starting today Ireland and Spain can start loving, wow-ing, or expressing sympathy to posts on Facebook by hovering or long-pressing the Like button wherever they see it. We’ll use the feedback from this to improve the feature and hope to roll it out to everyone soon.

Posted by Chris Cox on Thursday, October 8, 2015

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About The Author

Martin Beck is Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter, covering the latest news for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. He spent 24 years with the Los Angeles Times, serving as social media and reader engagement editor from 2010-2014. A graduate of UC Irvine and the University of Missouri journalism school, Beck started his career at the Times as a sportswriter and copy editor. Follow Martin on Twitter (@MartinBeck), Facebook and/or Google+.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)

Facebook Is Testing Empathetic Emoji To Go Beyond The Like Button

Subject Line Testing: 5 Things To Keep In Mind - Business 2 Community

Kinda Fairly Extremely recently, we’ve talked some about A/B testing and the wonders it’ll do for your email marketing program. And while you can do A/B testing for a boatload of creative and design concepts with your emails, let’s focus more on perhaps the most important part of the email: the subject line.

Why is this at the top of the list? Because it’s the first thing your subscribers will see. And if the subject line doesn’t tickle their fancy right off the bat, you’re already treading in perilous waters. The kind with sharks or piranhas (the James Cameron kind).

We’ve got what we call a white paper in our ‘hood on the subject of testing, and we highly suggest you check it out …

… and, hey, it costs you nothing! Go buy an ice coffee with that money or a slice of ‘za.

Recommended for YouWebcast: Successful Customer Experiences Are Identity-Centric

5. Use Action-Oriented Vernacular

Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, may she ever rest in peace, once advised that you “check your vernacular” (after which she’d get back to ya, but we’re just focusing on the “vernacular” part). If your email is for some sort of sale or product launch or anything that involves a transaction of cool, cool dollars — try using subject lines that create a sense of urgency for what you’re selling.

Notice the trigger words we used here. We told you what you were getting, the rarity of it, and that it doesn’t last long. This formula can be mixed and matched and moved around to serve whatever you’re selling.

There’s just one thing wrong with it. (Okay — there are a ton of things wrong with it, but let’s not stop the ball once it’s rolling.)

4. Shorter Is Better

You can only have so many characters in your subject line and, even then, it’s silly to feel like you need to use the entire space. In fact, we advise against doing so.

Because we live in an age where information hits us faster than even ludicrous speed, it’s important to grab your subscribers’ attention immediately and in a concise fashion. So while the above cry was very descriptive, it was far too long.

So take some time when it comes to writing your subject lines. We advise keeping a 50 character limit. Rewrite and edit and cut until you feel comfortable with the length and copy. And remember: We’re testing here, so come up with multiple variations, or even completely different lines. The goal is to find the one that gets your subscribers to open what you’re sending.

3. Review Past Successes

So now you have the basics down, but you’ve hit a creative or strategic block when it comes to crafting your subject line. Don’t worry about it: Look at what’s worked for you in the past.

Check the analytics you have hanging around on open-rates, conversions, and click throughs on campaigns that have straight killed it in the past. Heck, take it a step further: Look at campaigns that didn’t do so spectacularly; check for things like unsubscribes and opt outs.

Use this treasure trove of knowledge to zero in on subject lines that seemed to do pretty well. Even look for commonalities like specific words, or punctuation. They may seem tiny, but you never know when a single word could be the difference between a successful campaign and one that’s going nowhere fast.

2. Be Aware Of Spam Filters

Our Director of Deliverability gave a pretty good breakdown on avoiding spam filters. It’s a good quick read and we recommend you giving it a look.

But we’ll give you a quick crash course anyway because, hey, you’re already here. In a nutshell there are two big factors that determine if you’re heading for a subscriber’s spam box or not. The first one, perhaps obviously, is word choice. Because of the nature of today’s spam filters, it’s not exactly easy to nail down a comprehensive vocab list. This is in part due to the fact that that list is ever-changing. Still, some style choices like ALL CAPS AND EXCESSIVE EXCLAMATION POINTS CAN FILTER OUT YOUR EMAILS!!!!!!!! If you want some good examples of what will get you tossed in the spam jail, you have a great resource easily at your disposal: Your own spam box. Just perusing the first page of that can get you cued in on what isn’t passing for normal subject lines these days.

The second factor to keep in mind is that today’s spam filters take engagement into consideration. If you’re sending crisp, fresh-to-death emails that people are opening and clicking on, then you’ll be square. If your subscribers aren’t opening or are immediately reporting your sends as spam, then your email market program is in huge trouble.

1. First Impressions Are Important

You’ve been hearing this your entire life. Appear knowledgeable and confident in job interviews. Don’t annoy your teacher on the first day of class. Don’t order chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese on a first date.

Why? Because the first impression someone gets of you is going to be a deciding figure in whether you’re worth their time or not. The same holds true with for your subscribers. When people subscribe to your email list, your welcome email’s subject line should make a splash, not miss the pool. Make sure you grab their attention right off the bat. If a subscriber has filled out some preferences, go ahead and send them something relevant. Is there a call-to-action involved? Make sure they know, and don’t be annoying about it.

Subject Line Testing: 5 Things To Keep In Mind - Business 2 Community

Facebook Testing Buy Buttons and Storefronts on Pages

By Sara Angeles, BusinessNewsDaily Staff Writer July 17, 2015 07:00 am EST

Credit: Facebook

Once upon a time, Facebook was just another way to create an online presence and market a business on social media. But the company is quickly claiming its stake on social media e-commerce.

Facebook is currently testing new tools that let merchants sell directly on their Facebook Pages, a report by BuzzFeed revealed. The company has been building online storefronts right on Facebook Pages, with some of the pages even featuring new buy buttons to sell directly to customers.

This new shops feature is just the latest of Facebook’s e-commerce initiatives. Just last year, the company launched buy buttons on sponsored posts, then unveiled Messenger payments shortly after. It’s only fitting that businesses will soon be able to use the social network as an all-in-one e-commerce solution. [Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know]

“With the shop section on the page, we’re now providing businesses with the ability to showcase their products directly on the page,” Emma Rodgers, product marketing manager at Facebook, said in a statement.

The new Facebook Page shops essentially allow businesses to use their Facebook Pages as online storefronts and the entire Facebook platform as an e-commerce solution. The platform will be complete with social media marketing, all the way down the sales funnel from product discovery to customer service and a checkout system.

Facebook Page shops won’t be limited to desktop, either. With most Facebook users accessing the social network on mobile phones, shops will also penetrate mobile commerce via the Facebook app. Shops will be displayed very visibly beneath the About section, making products for sale very hard to miss.

The Facebook Page shops platform is still very much in its early stages, however. For instance, there is still no search function for either products being sold or stores that currently have a shop on their Facebook Pages. BuzzFeed suggests that search would work similar to the current graph search feature; users could search by typing “shops with sales” or “stores that sell T-shirts” in the search bar.

Nonetheless, the new e-commerce tool promises to focus on the customer experience, with Facebook adding new “incremental features and capabilities,” Rodgers said.

The Facebook Page shops feature is currently being piloted by a number of undisclosed brands. Facebook has yet to announce when it will start rolling out the new service or how it will charge businesses, so that could mean anything from commissions to payment processing and transaction fees, or even a pricing model similar to that used for Facebook Ads.

Facebook Testing Buy Buttons and Storefronts on Pages