“Haha”, “Wow”…I “Love” the New Facebook Rollout

I sound like a broken record because I have touched on the subject so many times but it is true: social media is constantly changing.

Some people resist it and some people embrace it. Because of my profession, I am definitely one who embraces it. However, today I went a step further and tried to make others embrace it as well.

Before I mention how I did that, let me first recognize Facebook for their big rollout. As of today, users can do more than just “like” a piece of content. If you see a status update that you really, really like, you can “love” it. When you love something, Facebook denotes it by putting a heart emoticon right below the post. But Facebook did much more…

Here is one of Sid's Facebook status updates that I decided to "love."

Here is one of Sid’s Facebook status updates that I decided to “love.”

You can also “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad,” or “Angry” any piece of content you want. By doing any of these actions, an emoticon face displaying the thought/emotion will also appear right beneath the post. It is pretty cool!

If you hover over the "like" button, you now have five additional options to choose from.

If you hover over the “like” button, you now have five additional options to choose from.

Let me say this: Facebook needed to do this. The social media giant went a whole decade without any modernization of content response; it was always just “comment” or “like.” As Facebook posting capabilities evolved, there weren’t any reaction tools added to keep up. For far too long if you wanted to recognize a Facebook friend’s status when he/she wrote that a loved one passed away or that he/she would be moving across the country, all you could do was “comment” or “like”. Many times both of those options are inappropriate. This issue is now solved.

When I saw the improvement this morning I wanted to celebrate. But I held it all in and waited for tonight! This evening I took it upon myself to spread the good news. I went on a “Hahaing,” “Wowing,” “Angrying(?),” etc. rampage. It didn’t matter who it was, I went down my newsfeed and performed one of the new Facebook actions to every piece of content that Facebook fed me.

After I exhausted my newsfeed, I just started typing in names of friends. I went to their page and made sure to “haha” a photo or “wow” a status. Even if it meant I had to mark a buddy’s video from a year ago with “angry” I did it. I probably performed at least one type of the new Facebook actions on 60 people.

Why did I do this? Like I said, I wanted to help people embrace the new Facebook invention. It never fails, some people will always hate change, even if it is a significant improvement. Maybe someone who thought this rollout was dumb changed their tune when they were notified that Brent Reser “Wowed” their relationship status.

Of course I did it as a method of awareness too. I guarantee half of the people who received a notification from me today didn’t even know about the change. Perhaps by me “hahaing” them or “angrying” them for the first time it helped them get with the program and not feel so out of the loop. You’re welcome.

Bravo to Facebook for this long overdue change. I hope all my Facebook friends go crazy with the new feature like I did. Don’t Blink.