“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
And so is an emoji.
Hi there, welcome to Square Up.
vs
Hi there, welcome to Square Up! 😊👋
Which one do you think will catch someone’s eye quicker on, let’s say, Twitter?
Of course, it’s the second option with the emojis.
It’s the 21st century. Although the first emoticon (“:-)”) was invented in 1982, they have gone through many changes and upgrades, and can convey almost any human emotion or represent almost any object now. With emojis from various companies being created and added so often, emoji use has increased dramatically over the years.
In fact, according to a 2015 Instagram report, about half of all comments and captions on Instagram contained emojis. I wonder how much that statistic has grown today, five years later!
When communication takes place through the internet or by text rather than face-to-face conversations, emojis can play a vital role in defining your tone and presence as everything is very visual. Facial expressions or body language that we can see in a face-to-face conversation cannot be seen through a screen (obviously), and emojis can make up for that, adding a whole new element to your text by conveying nuance. Emojis have a major influence on how a post or profile on social media is viewed and processed in our brains.
Researcher Dr. Owens Churches found that most people “pay more attention to faces than we do to anything else,” and through the internet, the same parts of our brains are activated when we see “:-)” as when we see faces. This means that we recognize and react to emojis just as we would to real human faces! This goes to show that emojis are vital on social media to capture your audience’s attention.
Other studies have shown that the use of emojis can also be an indication of status on social media.
“Emoticon use is a powerful predictor of social status on both Twitter and Facebook...Individuals who use emoticons often (and positive emoticons in particular) tend to be popular or influential.”
Using emojis related to your text on social media will not only help catch people’s eye as they scroll through their feeds, but it will also make you appear friendlier and open when using positive emojis. Rather than seeming “unprofessional,” as some may think, appropriate emoji-use will actually make you (and/or your business) seem more competent and personable.
So don’t forget to include emojis in your next post for a greater chance to get a larger reach and more engagements!
Show, don’t tell 🤓👍
References:
Baer, D. (2015, September 24). Emoticons have basically saved human communication. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/emoji-were-invented-33-years-ago-heres-why-theyre-so-crucial-today-2015-9
Instagram Engineering. (2016, October 26). Emojineering Part 1: Machine Learning for Emoji Trends. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from https://instagram-engineering.com/emojineering-part-1-machine-learning-for-emoji-trendsmachine-learning-for-emoji-trends-7f5f9cb979ad
Tchokni, S., Seaghdha, D. O., & Quercia, D. (2014). Emoticons and Phrases: Status Symbols in Social Media. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from http://researchswinger.org/publications/tchokni14.pdf
Thursday, 6. (2014, February 05). Emoticon language is 'shaping the brain'. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/02/06/3938772.htm
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