Emerging less than two decades ago, social emojis are by now such a prominent part of our daily lives that we don’t give them much thought. Yet, they are ingrained in our lexicon, and we use them to share our thoughts and moods or to simply add a bit more character to an otherwise dull text.
Because of this simplicity, social media emojis give to share our messages, emojis have become not only a useful addition to online messaging, emojis are also powerful medium brands can use for promotional efforts. Whether your audience is millennials active on different platforms or older people, you can use emojis in a variety of marketing channels, to maximize your promotional efforts!
In this article, we dive deep into what social media emojis are, why you should use them to boost your social media posts, share some useful tips and tricks, and much more.
What Are Emojis?
Created in 1997 in Japan, Emojis are tiny, emotive characters designed to visually represent a certain emotion (hence the name) or an object. While the emojis have been around since then, they came to the spotlight only in 2011, when Apple integrated them into iOS 5 keyboards. Since then, they’ve been an inseparable part of online communication.
The list of emojis is constantly growing. After the release of Emoji 13.1, there are currently 3500+ emojis featuring a diverse set of elements, from different skin tones to flags and geographical shapes, making them an even more complete way of communication.
Very often emojis are confused with emoticons. While emojis were initially planned as a way to give face emoticons, these two terms are not the same. Emoticons are made using keyboard signs. In the early internet day, the emoticon ???? would mean a smile, while :-* meant a kiss. While some people still use emoticons in Facebook post today, most operating systems automatically turn them into emojis. However, these two terms are not to be confused.
Why Use Emojis As Part Of Your Social Media Marketing Efforts?
Except for being an incredibly accessible and cheap marketing tool for your brand, emojis have other benefits businesses can reap, if they approach emojis strategically and with more consideration. Here are some of those benefits.
Social Media Emojis Give Your Brand A Personality And Humanize It
By using emojis as part of your brand message, you show your audience that you speak with them using their language. This is a key step when it comes to earning their trust. Adding emojis to your posts humanizes your brand. It also adds a touch of personality to it, showing the viewers that they are interacting with people behind the brand and that those people experience emotions and excitement, just like them.
Emojis Boost Engagement With Your Posts
One of the reasons emojis have become ingrained in our daily lives and digital presence is their engaging nature. They are fun, communicative, and simple to use. They are also extremely eye-catchy. These qualities make emojis an invaluable tool for boosting engagement on your social media pages, no matter the channels you are using. And this is not an overstatement! On Twitter, Tweets with emojis see 25% more engagement, while on Facebook, posts containing emojis drive as much as 33% more engagement and 57% more interactions! So next time you are looking for ways to improve the engagement rates of your posts and put your brand in front of more eyes, start with emojis.
Emojis Add Context To Your Message
Being a means of communication themselves, emojis have the power to alter the context and meaning of your marketing message. But have you ever wondered how to use emoji in Facebook comments? This happens in the same way an exclamation mark changes the tone of your text, making it sound more exciting. Emojis visually convey your mood and emotion, adding depth to them. Moreover, you can easily copy and paste them with the help of a free tool like Quicktools’.
It’s important to remember that emojis are not a substitute for a meaningful brand message.
Text and emojis can work together and complement each other to create a compelling experience for your followers and grow your audience.
Tips To Use Social Media Emojis To Maximize Success
Now that we know how beneficial emojis can be for your brand, let’s take a look at several tips you need to pay attention to to use the untapped marketing potential of emojis.
Know Your Audience
As in any other type of marketing, before designing your strategy, you need to learn more about your audience. Use different social media tools to understand the demographics of your followers, their cultural background, their location. You can then better inform your emoji marketing strategy. For example, if your audience is on an older side, chances are, they can be conservative when it comes to emojis. You can choose a more serious tone with only a few subtle emojis that illustrate your point but are not too overwhelming.
Whether you’re a SaaS business or sell products online, learning about your audience is an ongoing process. Don’t stop by using the 3-4 emojis you’ve chosen at the beginning of your strategy. As time goes by, take a closer look at the performance of your posts and calculate the engagement rates. Then, use this information to improve the result.
Understand How The Emojis Look On Different Devices
A key thing to consider when you are designing your emoji marketing strategy is that emojis don’t look the same across devices. Depending on the phone model or operational system your viewer is using, they’ll see a differently depicted icon. Because of this, the context of your message may be lost to them. The changes can go from very slight changes in the emoji undertone to an almost entirely different look.
You must be aware of this difference, and test and view your posts before they go live to make sure your message looks exactly how you want it, and that there won’t be any errors.
Keep It (Mostly) Consistent
Emojis give us almost limitless options to be creative. And while it may be tempting to add new and not-so-popular emojis all the time and try to surprise your audience, this is not always the best choice.
As with everything in marketing, you should be strategic when it comes to the choice of emojis as well. For example, you can choose an emoji and make it your brand’s trademark by frequently using it. These small signature moves can help you boost engagement of your posts and recognition of your brand.
This is not to say that you should choose 5 emojis and use only them, but no matter what emoji you go with, make sure that it’s not random. Emojis should match your message and your brand’s value, otherwise, they’ll look out of place.
Be Inclusive
Emojis no longer look the way they did in the 1990s or even 2000s. With every new version of emojis, new and better-looking emojis are available. Different skin tones and a variety of colors for the same objects are now available. Because of this large selection of emojis, your users will probably want to see some diversity in your content. If you choose to work with influencers as part of your marketing strategy, make sure their used emojis are relevant. You can find Facebook influencers who produce engaging content and use suitable emojis at the same time. Use humanized emojis from time to time, or choose to go with different skin color variations. With 3500+ emojis available at your fingertips, you can easily incorporate diversity into your content instead of sticking to several better-known emojis.
What To Avoid When Using Emojis
While emojis can be fun, engaging, and grab the attention of your followers, and be quite beneficial for your brand, you need to keep it professional. For that, here are two key things you need to avoid.
Don’t Ignore The Context
Emojis serve as a visual addition to the text you’ve written as part of your social media post. Moreover, they can be used by flyer makers, image, and video editors. Therefore, it’s very important you keep the emojis you are using in line with the context of your post, as they are going to show your mood. For example, you are aiming to craft an exciting post about something important your team is up to on the weekend, but then add the “poker face” emoji to your text, it’ll sound anything but exciting. Because “an image is worth a thousand words” and because emojis are so integrated into our online presence, chances are, they’ll have an even higher impact than your text.
Don’t Overuse Them
There are a huge number of emojis that may match your message, however, it’s important not to overuse them. Too many emojis can make you look unprofessional and distance you from your followers. Don’t add 10 emojis where you can go with 1 or 2 emojis relevant to your brand. Chances are, this will confuse your audience more than helping them understand your message.
Top 5 Social Media Emojis And Their Meaning
We’re using emojis almost daily, but do we always know what they mean? Very often the meaning of emojis can be open to interpretation depending on the context and the cultural background of the users. For example, the “Folded Hands” emoji (????) is designed to show prayer and an act of gratitude, but many users have been using it as a high five! To understand emojis better, below are the 5 most popular emojis on the Internet, with their meanings.
Heart Emoji
This is a classic emoji mostly used to express love and gratitude. Depending on the platform, the emoji can be of different shades of red. The emoji is also known as Love Heart and Red Heart on Apple products.
Face with Pleading Eyes
Face with Pleading Eyes emoji, also known as Begging emoji or Glossy Eyes emoji is the second most used emoji on the Internet. Created to express feelings of adoration, cuteness, and show that the sender is touched by something.
Smiling Face with Tear
Designed to have a meaning of being touched, it is mostly used to express that the sender is smiling through the pain. Smiling Face with Tear is a very recent emoji, approved only in 2020, but it gained instant popularity among Internet users.
Sparkles Emoji
Sparkles, Glitter, or Shiny, this emoji is usually used to show positive emotions the sender is experiencing, like happiness and joy. Sparkles emoji can also be used to represent actual stars, as well as go well with different sparkly things.
Tears of Joy Emoji
Tears of Joy, or simply the laughing emoji has been used by everyone at least once. It’s also known as the Laughing Crying or LOL emoji and was designed to be used in funny situations.
Top Emojis Per Social Media
In the prior section, we’ve covered the 5 most used emojis on the Internet. This includes different social platforms, blogs, and other forms of online communication. However, the popularity of emojis also varies from one social platform to another. Some emojis that are popular on Instagram just don’t work on Twitter and vice versa. To help you better inform your marketing decisions, here are Top 5 most used emojis for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Top Emojis On Instagram
Like other social platforms, emojis are an integral part of Instagram, being shared by millions of users daily. However, not all emojis are made equal, and some are used more often than others. Take a look at these 5 most popular emojis for Instagram posts and try to think of ways you can incorporate them into your social media content strategy.
- “Red Heart” Emoji
- “Heart Eyes” Emoji
- “Kissing Face” Emoji
- “Tears Of Joy” Emoji
- “Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes” Emoji
Top Emojis On Facebook
Every day, over 700 million emojis are shared on Facebook posts, and more than 900 million text messages containing no text but only emojis are sent on Messenger! When trying to establish your brand on Facebook (which you should!) knowing the trends is key. In the case of Facebook and Messenger, these are the five bullet-proof options you can go with.
- “Tears Of Joy” Emoji
- “Heart Eyes” Emoji
- “Kissing Face” Emoji
- “Birthday Cake” Emoji
- “Red Heart” Emoji
Smileys for Facebook posts are used most commonly above all. If you are a regular Facebook user, you should know how these emojis can work wonders.
Top Emojis On Twitter
Top Emojis On TwitterWhen it comes to Twitter, finding trending emojis can quickly and easily be done through emoji tracker – a tool designed to show in real-time what emojis are used on the platform. As of the time of writing this article, these 5 emojis were topping the chart of the most used emojis, leaving others far behind.
- “Tears Of Joy” Emoji
- “Red Heart” Emoji
- “Crying” Emoji
- “Heart Eyes” Emoji
- “Recycle” Emoji
Final Thoughts on Social Media Emojis
In this article, we’ve covered some tips and tricks on how you can use emojis to boost your social media marketing efforts. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to what we’ve discussed. Be open to experimentation and constantly try new ways to spice up your promotional efforts. Emojis offer endless opportunities for creativity and can help you attract your audience and raise brand awareness.