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How to Use Emojis in Your Social Media Marketing

Friday 30 March 2018

8 minute read

By Rachael Farley

Using emojis in your social media messages is a fun way to interact with your target audience.

Whether you’re sending a text to your best mate or tweeting about your day, we bet there’s an emoji in it. If you read our blog on 2017’s Facebook Messenger statistics, you’ll know that people shared over 500 billion emojis in 2017, or nearly 1.7 billion each day [Source - Facebook Newsroom].

It may come as no surprise that more and more brands are choosing to include these brilliant little emoticons in their social media marketing. In fact, emoji usage in marketing messages has rapidly increased at an annual growth rate of over 775 percent since 2016.

So how can your business use emojis? Here are 5 things to keep in mind to ensure your marketing campaign is 👍and not 👎…

Check Connotations Beforehand

Don’t be the company that doesn’t do their research beforehand. It’s best to stay away from certain emojis (we’re talking about you, eggplant!) in order to prevent unnecessary attention. Use sites like Emojipedia to find out the history behind each emoji to avoid blunders.

Understand When and When Not to Use Emojis

Emojis are fun and light-hearted meaning they’re a great way to brighten up your social media messages and humanise your brand. However, there are some situations where you should definitely step clear of them.

Hillary Clinton Emoji Tweet

Just take a look at Hillary Clinton who tried to engage with a millennial audience by trivialising an important topic with emojis.

Don’t Go Emoji-Crazy

You’ve got a Twitter post but it could do with some emojis to liven it up. Don’t go overboard in an attempt to be ‘down with the kids’. One or two emojis is enough otherwise your message will be drowned out.

#ChevyGoesEmoji Marketing Campaign

Chevrolet found this out the hard way when they wrote a press release about their latest model using emojis. The campaign dubbed #ChevyGoesEmoji received a backlash from customers who believed they were trying to be too clever. Ain’t nobody got time for dat, Chevy!

Make Interactions Friendly

Lots of consumers use social media to talk to customer services regarding an issue. The last thing anyone wants is to talk to a one-tone robot - chances are your customer will look somewhere else. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, why not incorporate a smiley face to make your brand look more approachable and invite conversation?

Think About Your Brand

Some brands may be able to use light-hearted - and sometimes silly - emojis, whereas it may taint the professionalism of another company. Think about how you want your business to be perceived and select emojis carefully.

So now you know the basic do’s and don’ts of emoji usage, your business can put these fun emoticons to the test to increase engagement and invite conversation.

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