Emojis are fun, creative and engaging. Which is why you should include emoticons in your content. Do you agree? Think about it!
They are a creative way to communicate visually. They are about loving fun, which is what younger generations want. Most brands would react incredulously to the thought of using emoticons on their social media. Here’s why we think agencies should try out emojis while marketing on social media.
- Emojis were developed in the late 1990s by NTT DoCoMo.
- Around 5 billion emojis are sent daily on Facebook.
- The world even celebrates an emoji day every year, on the 17th of July.
- 92% of Internet users use emojis.
- 25-29-year-olds use emoticons the most.
Here we try to break down some reasons why emojis are important for your brand’s marketing plan.
The Most Popular Emojis you could Use
There have been lists of top social media influencers, social media platforms et cetera. Why not a list of the top emojis used on social media? We did some social listening on the matter, to bring you the top 10 emoticons in use currently.
Face with Tears of Joy ?
Good to know that the world puts a laughter emoji at the top. Laughter is the best medicine after all.
Loudly Crying Face ?
Life is full of ups and downs. If laughter topped the list, crying out loudly came in next. Also, here’s a fun fact, men and women both had this emoticon in the second position. Who says boys don’t cry?
Smiling with Heart Eyes ?
Here’s your first love-themed emoji in the top 10. “Beautiful” and “cute” are the words most often used with this emoji.
Red Heart ❤️
Talking about love-theme emojis, the red heart – the symbol of love, is next.
Backhand Index Pointing Right ?
Unlike the other emoticons, this one is a surprising entry among the top 10. This one is popular because most tweets use it to point at links.
Purple Heart ?
6th on the list is the purple heart. BTS fans are particularly fond of this emoji. Even BTS’s official Twitter handle posts the purple heart often.
Two Hearts ?
So much love! The next emoji on the list is the one with two hearts. The word “happy” is most often used in combination with this emoji.
Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes ?
The blushing smiley face is a great way to accept a compliment gracefully. It can also say that you are feeling loved or even happy & warm. This emoticon is most used when wishing happy birthdays or good times.
Thinking Face ?
After love, happiness, and sadness, the top 10 emojis have one which depicts a question or expresses confusion. This emoji is most useful when discussing politics.
Folded Hands ?
Then we have an emoticon that passes for thanks, gratitude or even prayers, who knows! What’s sure is that it has made its way to the top ten emojis.
Why Should you use Emojis for Social Media Marketing?
Here are 4 reasons why and how you should use emojis in your social media marketing plan.
Emojis Present a Pleasant Visual Aspect
Emojis are like ideograms – a tiny visual depicting an idea. Marketing experts insist on the importance of engaging your audience with strong visuals. The fact is that it is extremely difficult to catch the attention of your audience for long. Make your brand stand out so you can hold on to their attention. Creating content with distinct visuals is one great way to do it.
Most of you would feel that an emoji is not the first thing that comes to mind when talking about strong visuals. But check this:
- More and more brands are advertising using emojis. Google search for “best emoji advertising” turns up over 50 million results.
- More than 50% of brands saw an increase in the number of email-opens when they used emoticons in the subject line.
- Push notifications that had emojis in them saw an 85% increase in open rates and a 9% increase in conversion rates.
Not only do emoticons make your content more pleasant to look at. They also make your content seem less monotonous with fewer words and more colorful little signs.
Emojis are International in Reach
Emojis are most convenient when you are trying to reach people from around the world with differing cultures. Who doesn’t understand a smiley? An emoji for a pizza slice is the same across the world. So it’s easier to convey that your restaurant is serving pizzas now with an emoticon rather than trying to write a sentence in every language.
Millennials Relate to Your Brand
Unless you are trying to sell walking sticks, almost every product and service today tries to target the millennials. The use of emoticons is one of the primary ways to communicate with millennials and gen-Z. These new members of the consumer market do not care much for traditional ads. They respond when your brand begins to engage with them. You need to start speaking their language to get them interested in you.
How to Use Emojis on Social Media?
I hope I was able to convince you and that’s why you kept on reading till this point. Now if you are wondering how to make use of these little faces within your content, read on.
Using them doesn’t necessarily have to follow a rulebook. It is an unconventional form of marketing communication hence use it freely. But be sure not to overdo it. Use it creatively. Here’s a popular example of how Hillary Clinton used it:
Emojis are meant to be used as a complement to your message. So make sure that when you use them it makes sense in conjunction with the whole message. Once that is achieved you are good to go ?.