Facebook Reactions are here... What does it mean?

Wednesday, February 24th 2016... The way we express ourselves on Facebook changed forever today (again.) As I was scrolling through my timeline, I noticed a subtle difference in the Like button.  It was now a Thumbs up in a circle.  That's cool, I thought - they've updated the image.  But then I started to notice some other graphics.  So the reports were true, and Facebook has finally rolled out the ability to do more than Like | Comment | Share a post.

Now you have the ability to Like, Love, Laugh, Surprise, Cry, or be Angry at a post.  I suppose this fills the need to express some negative emotions like for example someone loses a job or passes away.  I believe that this means an increase in engagement on Facebook because now you can truly express a more appropriate emotion.  I might not "Like" that someone lost their job, and maybe I wouldn't take the time to actually comment, but now I might be "Sad" or "Angry" about it.  For Brands trying to engage with customers using social I think this helps drive engagement where a different emotion becomes relevant.

Where social media has changed the world is the rise of Negativity.  Where you might be polite enough to someone in a face to face setting we see scores of negative comments on a post.  How will that angry face affect post engagement?