Facebook Tests Negative Feedback Feature For Pages

Facebook is testing out a negative feedback measurement feature for its recently upgraded Page Insights product. When page administrators – who are in the test pool – click on the “engaged users” metric, they’ll currently see the number of Facebook users who responded negatively to a brand post.

First reported by Wise Metrics’ blog, ClickZ News confirmed the test status of the feature. An email we received from Palo Alto, CA-based Facebook read, “This is measuring the negative feedback options that exist on Facebook, which means reporting on clicks that occur on News Feed stories (so any time a user hides or reports a News Feed page post as spam). We’re showing which Page posts get some negative feedback from people because it helps Page admins know what type of content resonates best with their customers, so that they may improve their Page posting strategy long-term.”

The test seems to potentially represent a shift from Facebook’s perspective. When asked about negative sentiment analysis in October, David Baser, a product manager for the digital giant, told ClickZ News, “When we’ve researched this, we have found the vast, vast majority of content is positive. So we don’t believe today there is any need for us to get into sentiment analysis products.”

Update: This story originally stated Facebook was tracking negative comments written by users in response to brand posts.