Should I be using emojis as a business?
The simple answer is yes. Using emojis is a great way to keep catching users’ attention and keeping them engaged. But it does depend on how you want to portray your brand. Ultimately, emojis are a great way to communicate with your customers and users online. But be careful to not overuse them. Make sure your message is clear and understandable.
What are emojis?
Emojis are a symbolic representation of emotions. You’ll recognise them as yellow-faced emotions, objects or symbols. They’re are commonly used to express emotion on the internet or when texting. Essentially, they’re a way of communicating in the digital world.
Let’s try it. Can you understand the emoji language?
After 🌅 me and my 👨👩👧👦 are👉 in a 🚖 to the ✈️ on 🏝.
The history of emojis
Emojis were invented in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita for a Japanese company called NTT Docomo. In 2007, Apple released the emoji keyboard to the Japanese market but hid it from the rest of the world. However, that didn’t last very long as people found the keyboard and now it’s used worldwide.
Why should my business use emojis on social media?
It’s no lie that emojis are a big part of modern communication. They allow you to speak the same language as your customers and make your posts more engaging and noticeable.
Using emojis will help you adopt an informal and casual tone of voice on social media. Your personality will shine, and your fun brand will show through the emoticons you use.
In 2021, Adobe published a Global Emoji Trend Report that surveyed 7,000 people across the globe that use emojis. They found that:
- 67% believe that people who use emojis are friendly and funny
- 88% are more likely to feel empathetic towards someone if they use emojis
- 66% like when people use emojis at work
- 42% are more likely to buy from businesses if they advertise using emojis
- 60% are more likely to open an email if it contains an emoji
Trust the numbers. Emojis can increase engagement on Twitter by 25%. Whilst on Facebook engagement can be increased by 57% and Instagram by 48%. A boost in engagement for using them effectively.
So, how can you use emojis effectively to ensure you achieve a boost in engagement? Let’s find out.
How should my business use emojis?
1. Keep it simple
Use popular or easy-to-understand emojis. We know emojis are exciting. But keeping it simple can get your message and meaning across clearer. Even if it’s a coloured circle instead of a bullet point or a point to show direction. Don’t overcomplicate your message.
2. Alternative meanings
Look out for emojis with two or more different meanings. Pay attention to cultural differences and make sure the way you’re using them isn’t offensive. You wouldn’t want your perfectly crafted message to be miscommunicated!
3. Use them to make a point
You can use them to help communicate and bring attention to your message. We’d recommend using a mixture of emojis and words. For example,
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4. Don’t overuse emojis
Although emojis are great in appealing to your customers and showing your brand’s personality, overusing emojis can become tedious. Don’t use more than two emojis in one row and make it accessible. If you’ve mastered number one, this shouldn’t be much of an issue.
5. Keep on trend
Using trending emojis will help you to stay relevant, be more understood and even reach people outside of your target audience.
If you want to keep on-trend, try using an emoji tracker. This emoji tracker gives you real-time popularity scores on Twitter to see what people are using the most. And if you want to know the meaning of different emojis, visit Emojipedia.
If your business is not using emojis on social media, then what are you waiting for? It is clear to see emojis increase engagement, help to communicate messages, and reach your audience.
You can even remain professional. You just need to define which emojis are on brand and suit your brand style and tone. Then away you go.
If you need help defining your brand on social media, contact our performance marketing team today!
As a top social media agency, Vivid Creative offers branding, web design and digital marketing integrated solutions to generate maximum return on investment. Call us on 0114 221 2121 to find out more about how we can help your brand burn brighter.
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