A Guide to Using Emojis in Your Social Media Marketing

If one emoji is worth a thousand words, are you sending the right message to your customers? Here’s a handy guide to help you decide when, where, why, and how to use emojis in your social media marketing!

Why you should use emojis

Emojis have come a long way since their invention at the turn of the century. So much so, that you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t use emojis these days! Breaking language and cultural barriers across the world, emojis have become a universal language in their own right. So, while we might not always know the right words to say, emojis can help to get our point across more clearly.

Besides for articulating meaning, the light-hearted tone of emojis lends itself to the very nature of social media – which is to be warm and social. As such, emojis can help your business to be more social-media friendly and give your social media posts that human touch. Which, in turn, will help make your business more relatable and likeable amongst its audience.

Emojis can also help increase social media engagement. According to HubSpot, using emojis in a Facebook post can increase the number of post likes by as much as 57% and the number of comments or shares by 33%; while emojis in a tweet can increase engagement by a notable 25.4%. A study by Quintly has also shown that a higher number of emojis in Instagram post captions equals a higher amount of interactions.

When & where to use emojis

As great as they are, emojis do have a time and place. If your business is launching a new product, hosting a competition, or running a survey, these are opportune times to include emojis to help generate excitement and enthusiasm. If you need to release an important statement, address a complaint, or respond to a negative review, it probably isn’t a good time to use a smiley face emoji. Before choosing an emoji, take a moment to consider the context of the post, the intended audience, and your brand’s personality.

Wondering where to use emojis on social media? The obvious choice is to include them in your post captions, but you may also consider including them in your images. This is especially useful if you’re hoping to ramp up your post engagement and interaction. For example, you can ask your followers to guess a movie or song title based off of the emojis in a picture. Or, you could ask them to ‘vote’ for something using the ‘like’, ‘love’, or ‘wow’ emoji reactions. Social media marketers have seen some great results from posts like these. Another great place to use emojis is in your Facebook and Instagram stories.

Deciding which emojis to use

Did you know what there are over 3 000 emojis to choose from? With so many options, it can be difficult to decide exactly which ones to use – and which ones to avoid. Your choice of emoji will be largely dependent on the context of the social media post. For example, the ideal emoji for an apple pie recipe will be very different to from your year-end report. However, there are a few emojis that outrank others in terms of popularity, which you may consider using where relevant.

As of October 2019, these are the world’s most popular emojis according to Unicode:

• Face with Tears of Joy
• Red Heart
• Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes
• Rolling on the Floor Laughing
• Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes
• Folded Hands
• Two Hearts
• Loudly Crying Face
• Face Blowing a Kiss
• Thumbs Up

Many businesses believe that emojis are too informal for their industry but, with careful selection, even the most ‘serious’ of businesses can successfully use them. Keep in mind that social media users are emoji users and it is, therefore, important to interact with them at this widely accepted level. All businesses should, however, avoid using overly emotional, impersonal or sarcastic emojis. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Kissy Face
• Angry Face
• Bunny Ears
• Hair Flip

Because your choice of emoji will be largely dependent on the post context as well as your business type and industry, it’s worthwhile running split tests to see which emojis your audience responds best to. The most important thing to remember is to keep it simple and relevant – going overboard with emojis can alienate or confuse your audience.

Social media is a place where even the smallest of details, such as an emoji, can escalate into a sizeable issue if left unchecked. Contact the digital marketing team at Online Innovations for expert assistance in managing your social media presence. Call us on 041 365 4919, mail [email protected], or visit our website at www.onlineinnovations.com to find out more.