Should your business be using Emojis when posting on your social media platforms?
Probably, yes! Whether or not you decide to jump on the bandwagon of the ‘millennial emojis’, you need to think about what type of business you have, and who your target market is. They can definitely make your brand seem more personable, but it is also easy to misuse them, overuse them or use them with the wrong crowd, on the wrong post.
Social media is meant to be fun, and your accounts should be an accurate representation of who you are as a business and the values you hold. It is just another method of communication after all, and nowadays a very important way for a business to connect and communicate with their target market and customers. Emojis have recently become an optional part of that communication (however nowadays, used more often than not), and they add that little bit of spirit, fun and humour. People buy from people, after all, not businesses, so if using emojis makes your brand seem more personable, go for it!
Emojis can definitely make your tone clearer. By their very nature emojis express emotion and tone. I often feel when I am writing an email to a client that they might think my passive voice is too stern, I then either compensate by being overly verbose or overly sycophantic, when a simple smile or thumbs up might do the trick. We lose so much without visual cues or intonation of voice in the written word – but it is still considered, by some, poor form to include an emoji in an email.
Throw some emojis in when you want to make your content a little more relatable, such as when posting a fun photo with a quirky caption. Example: Happy Friday! (insert beer or glass of wine emoji – everyone loves a drink on a Friday night, after all)!
Find a set of emojis which suit your brand the best, and go to town with these! Not on every post though, and only a couple per post – don’t over do it or you might look too casual and silly. As a general rule of thumb, we tend to keep it to 3 or less per post for anything that has target age above 25 – less often depending on the tech savviness of the group you are aiming at. Example; for a travel company, you might use different animals and trees (e.g. fish, sea creatures and palm trees when posting tropical/beach pics), planes, boats and landmark emojis, such as the super cute little island emoji’s or the Statue of Liberty (probably only for pics of New York though…).
You don’t have to add emojis to every post, and typically they are used more on Instagram than they are on Facebook.
BUT, know and understand your demographic. If your brand is trying to communicate with older customers, then emojis might not suit, as they may be uncomfortable with emojis, and may not even know what they mean (or interpret them the wrong way, which can be awkward)!
Anecdotally, my parents use emojis in text now, not often but they are there which is something for two septuagenarians. The usage is often just to convey tone (😊😘😉) rather than to let me know they are at the airport 🛫 or about to get lit🔥.
It’s interesting to note that they will use correct punctuation in text and were never taken in by the acronyms which makes the case for emoji adoption even stronger.
If you are on social media and have a strong presence, chances are you are trying to engage with a young/younger audience, and if they use emojis, you should too!
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