Advertisers can't target you based on Facebook Reactions

Facebook is counting every Reaction as a like, regardless of which one is chosen

Earlier today, Facebook debuted Reactions, or a series of new emoticons that allow it go beyond just the Like button. The new new buttons include Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. The Like button is still there, though now, if a user holds it down on mobile, or hovers over it on desktop, they get access to those other emotions as well.

The next question is: how will Facebook use these? Will they allow advertisers to better target you? After all, it seems like everything we do, or post, is used in that way.

The answer, at least for now, seems to be no, according to a report from Reuters.

When determining a user's intent, no matter which Reaction a user picks, they will all be counted the same way, as a Like. That means that, when the company tries to figure out which ad to show its users, its not going to see that they gave an Angry face to one post, or a Sad face to another. It's just going to assume that, since you gave it a reaction, you will want to see similar posts.

Wait, actually, maybe on second thought they should differentiate between the different Reactions. I don't want my news feed to all of the sudden become cluttered with all of the saddest posts Facebook has to offer!

Or maybe that won't ever happen. According to Reuters, Facebook said it would decide later how new reactions should be weighted to personalize news feeds. 

The only thing that is clear is that advertisers won't be able to get their hands on that data. That is a turn of events that has to have plenty of advertisers plenty mad; that data is sitting there, ready to be mined, and they are being blocked from accessing it. 

Being able to easily see, for example, if an ad elicited mostly angry responses, or happy responses, could allow those advertisers to know which of their ads are most effective. 

It's also a little surprising, given how reliant Facebook is on those advertising dollars. Facebook posted revenue of $5.8 billion for the fourth quarter of 2015, of which $5.6 billion came from advertising, an increase of 57 percent year over year. Mobile accounted for 80 percent of advertising revenue.  For the full year 2015, Facebook posted revenue of $12.5 billion.

Obviously the better targeted we all are, the most effective the ads, and the more money Facebook makes. Plenty of people, though, don't really like the idea of all of their information being used in this way, and perhaps Facebook is becoming more cognizant of that fact.

At least we can all hope so. Somehow I don't think I will b so optimistic about all of this a year from now.

VatorNews reached out to Facebook for comment. We will update this story if we learn more. 

(Image source: sessions.edu)