Emojis: More Important Than You'd Expect
How frequently do you use emojis in your daily life? If you're like my husband, the answer would be "never." In fact, the one time that he actually used an emoji in a text, I called him to make sure everything was ok. True story.
I'm figuring most of you are not like my husband, and more like myself, where rarely a day passes that I don't use an emoji in a text or social media post. Am I right? They make reading the context of typed communication so much easier. Instead of typing out "I'm just kidding," you can simply place a laughing smiley face after something you text a friend that they could potentially take offense to.
Read on to learn about what advantages there are in using emojis in your business' social media posts...but first, here's me with my favorite emoji...
I'm a Millennial/Gen Y, so there was a time in my life when we primitively texted without emojis. Emojis were first added as an update to iPhones on November 21, 2008, and now they have become ingrained in our daily lives.
As business owners who connect with people on social media, some emoji-related questions arise: Are emojis unprofessional in my posts? Are emojis helping my posts?
Are there specific emojis that are more popular than others?
Let's dive in.
Are emojis unprofessional in my posts? Surprisingly, no! In fact, people feel that if a company doesn't use emojis at all in their social media posts, then they are snobs! If your business is seeking an online audience, then it is very much a part of the social media world. Key word being social. If you are trying to connect with people, then you best interact with folks in the same way that they communicate. Speak their language. Come down to their level, as it were. Everything in moderation, but using emojis is now expected by most people on social media.
Are emojis helping my posts?
Yes! Here are some numbers for my data-driven readers:
On Instagram, the use of emojis increases engagement (over emoji-free posts) by 48%! Check this info out about interaction rates!
Using them on Facebook can increase your engagement by 57%.
Using them on Twitter can increase your engagement by 25%. On apps like Twitter, where your words are limited, people find it necessary to use emojis to say what they just don't have enough characters left to type.
"In a 2017 study published in the journal Trends on Cognitive sciences, researchers found that the use of emojis provides the same satisfaction as actually interacting with another person." Say what? People feel closer to you (and your business) when they see emojis in your posts. When someone feels close to you and your business, they are more likely to interact and purchase from you.
Are there specific emojis that are more popular than others?
Of course! Compare your "frequently used" emojis with the most used emojis of 2019.
That being said, you must know the "social" connotations behind each emoji, because we, as a society, tend to have our minds in the gutter.
Example: don't include an eggplant emoji on a business post
The cool thing about emojis is that they are universal. If someone sees an emoji in France, they're likely to understand the same meaning that it was intended for in America. (Granted, some countries add different meanings to things.)
Stick with popular emojis, like the ones above, or if you're really uncertain that something could be taken out of context, check out the Emojipedia which not only defines emojis and their meanings, but also shows you an example of what they will look like across all user devices: iPhone, Android, PC, etc.
I like to utilize emojis that match my brand. They're not always the popular ones, but they further emphasize my business' individuality. Being named Rocky Mountain Social Media, I use the snow-capped mountain emoji often as a bullet point. If you're a health-food company, utilize all of the vegetable emojis, etc.
To Sum it Up
Have fun using emojis and know that emojis are expected by consumers more than not. I initially found it hard to believe, but using emojis is considered professional on social media and even increases the amount of interaction, likes and followers to your pages. Utilize basic emojis that can't be misinterpreted if you're timid about using them, or just go all out and use what emojis enhance your brand. (Insert happy face emoji, here.)
(Do you realize how hard it was to type a blog about emojis without the ability to use them in my writing?!)
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