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Facebook’s Dislike Option: Thumbs-up or Thumbs-down?

We stated in our last blog about the importance of social listening. What better way to segue this topic than focusing on what everyone’s talking about–Facebook’s ‘dislike button’ speculation?

If you’re not sure what we’re talking about, we’ll catch you up: Recently, Facebook has been considering adding a ‘dislike button’ on business pages. Many reports say this is only for business pages, but others mention this will be an option on all accounts. CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that it won’t be a thumbs-down button, but some other form of public sentiment where users can rate posts and pages on a scale, such as ‘sympathy’ for a disaster.

Let’s suppose Facebook is actually coming out with a ‘thumbs-down’ button:

Many consumers favor this because they want all of their opinions to be heard, good and bad. Many organizations, on the other hand, fear this could portray their brand in a negative light. But why?

With social listening, companies need to start hearing what their customers are saying, and what better way to hear it than from Facebook in real time? While there are various reasons for their opposition, it should be something businesses look forward to overall, not because their page will receive negative sentiment, but because of the listening opportunities. Some brands may experience more negativity than others due to the nature of their industry, but that in and of itself is an opportunity to perhaps change public opinion.

Imagine a beef farm: Many who don’t eat meat for animal rights now have the opportunity to visually express their opinion on Facebook. Adding to that example, people may eat meat, but may not approve of the way the animals are fed or treated. With this concept button, they will have a voice, and if that beef farm is a listening organization, they will pick up on what their audience is saying and will be able to address the animals’ living conditions and diet.

Let’s go back to reality now:

Whatever Facebook decides to introduce, companies should try to find the silver lining. Organizations are already more transparent than ever, so if you start listening to your customers, you may end up turning those ‘dislikes’ into ‘likes.’ This is the age of the customer, and if you can catch problems on social media before they fester, you may be able to avoid future headaches for you and issues for them.

So here’s our question to you: Would you rather be oblivious to public opinion, or do you want to hear the truth?

Do you give the ‘dislike button’ a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down? Tell us in the comments!

Mworks740 • October 2, 2015

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