Last week, Facebook announced a pilot of “Reactions,” a new response mechanism that allows users to respond to posts on its network in more ways than just clicking “Like” or adding a comment. The new feature, (currently being tested in Spain and Ireland), is a reaction bar that grew from users’ expressed interest to having a “dislike” button. Besides “like,” uses can now choose emoji (expressive ideograms/smileys) symbols to express several other sentiments by hovering over or pressing down on the reaction bar. Available emotions are: Like, Love, HaHa, Yay, Sad and Angry.

An added benefit to the “Reactions” feature may allow Facebook to help detect Internet bullying before it escalates. Theoretically, Facebook is able to monitor reactions to posts and can step in if they notice a sharp uptick in negative reactions to a particular user’s posts.

– A Win for Online Advertisers –

With the addition of “Reactions,” Facebook’s ad platform is becoming an even more useful online marketing tool.