💡 #TipTuesday: Engage in one click with Reactions

MaureenD

Reactions turn quiet readers into active participants with one click to say “this helped,” “insightful,” or “🎉 awesome!” Without even typing a reply, members can elevate the best content, guide others to answers, and fuel your engagement flywheel.

Why use Reactions

Think of Reactions as your community’s high‑five. They lower the barrier to engagement so more people participate with one tap for even the lurkers.

They also help the community self‑curate: high‑scoring posts surface on Best Of, so newcomers find the good stuff faster. Posts will rack up views, leading to becoming the canonical answer the next time the question pops up. That’s Reactions quietly doing heavy lifting in the background.

And because Reactions can award points, they plug right into your badges and long‑term recognition strategy for contributors.

Best‑practice setup

• Keep it simple: enable 1–4 clear Reactions so the choice is fast and consistent. Decision fatigue is real.
• Encourage positive signals (Like, Insightful, Celebrate) and use negative ones sparingly. Document the when/why so they aren’t misused.
• Activate the special Promote Reaction for trusted Roles; it gives +5 points and spotlights can’t‑miss content on Best Of.
• Tune visibility: show “who reacted” as a popup or a row of avatars, or hide entirely by choosing what fits your culture and scale.

Pro tip: Pair these settings with a short “How we React here” snippet in your guidelines so members know what each Reaction means in context.

Quick how‑to: enable and fine‑tune

• Go to Dashboard → Settings → Posts → Reactions to toggle specific types and edit names, descriptions, and how many points users earn.
• Open Advanced settings to choose “who reacted” display (popup vs. avatars), set Best Of order (date vs. score), and adjust promote/bury thresholds.
• Confirm Role permissions so the right people can use positive/negative/curation Reactions (e.g., Garden > Curation > Manage for Promote).

Try this today: pick your core 3–4 Reactions, set Promote Threshold to match your community’s traffic, and add a short note to your posting guidelines explaining what each Reaction means.

Make them on‑brand: customize icons

A small visual tweak goes a long way. There are two places to update Reaction visuals, depending on where the icon appears:

• Posts and comments: Appearance → Branding & Assets → Manage Icons; search “reaction” and replace defaults with your SVGs for the reaction bar.
• Profile tallies: Settings → Posts → Reactions → Edit a Reaction → upload an SVG to change how that Reaction appears on user profiles.

Tip: Use simple, high‑contrast SVGs with a proper viewBox for crisp rendering across sizes and themes.

A few thoughtful choices here will compound: faster answers, clearer curation, and a brand‑consistent experience that’s genuinely fun to use. Know that your content is making an impact even if readers don't have a moment to write up a post. Every click matters!