Likes still reign supreme on Facebook, but other reactions have increased in popularity since their introduction in 2015.
According to a recent article, Facebook’s Reactions—Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry—have moderately increased in use.
For funeral homes, the Sad face and Love symbol are popular additions to the landscape of reactions. These reaction options allow people to share their sympathies about the death of a beloved friend or family member with more emotional impact than the typical thumbs-up symbol.
According to Facebook, the News Feed algorithm has been updated to take Reactions into account. They claim that reactions weigh more heavily on the algorithm because they reflect a higher level of engagement between the reactor and the page. More reactions should mean better reach into the news feeds of Facebook users.
For the purposes of increased engagement, funeral homes may wish to consider posting obituaries on their pages. Obituaries typically result in a lot of Likes, Loves and Sad reactions. In our Facebook management work, we have also found that posting images of staff members result in high engagement through both comments and reactions. We recommend developing posts around staff birthdays, work anniversaries and so on.
Take a look at your page and see if you are experiencing more reactions, such as Love, Wow and Sad.