The advantages of communicating with Emojis.
Believe it or not, July 17th was ‘World Emoji Day’ #WorldEmojiDay. Yes, it was a day to celebrate the ‘thumb’s up’, ‘love heart’, ‘laughing face’ and all of our favourites.
Teaching social media and public relations this semester at Deakin University, it was perfect timing to start a discussion about what I think is one of the most under-appreciated forms of communication available, the emoji.
Close to 90 of the 100 students I spoke to this week said they sent a piece of communication using an emoji every day. Wow!
I was slow to come around to this form of communication, a hold-out who thought it diminished more traditional written communications. But over the last year or so I’ve certainly changed my position.
It doesn’t have to be a choice between traditional written text or emojis, they are complimentary and together can help you tell an amazing story! I recently wrote about the Netball Australia, Aussie Diamonds #RethinkRoleModels campaign that used them so well, which you can check out here.
I jumped on Facebook LIVE again today (Watch it here or above) to talk this through, but in case you missed it, here are:
Five advantages to integrating emojis into your social (media) communications:
1. A picture tells a thousand words. You’ve heard that right? With one emoji you can convey what might have taken precious character/text space in your updates to say.
2. Universal. A love heart is clearly understood across audiences, languages, cultures and countries. Communicating with these visual elements opens an opportunity for your message to be understood worldwide.
3. Capture attention. Just as you (and I) scroll past text-heavy, plain Facebook and Twitter updates with little or no engaging elements, emojis add colour and fun , helping your content stand out.
4. Context. Conveying emotion across social (media) communications is often difficult. Adding a complimentary emoji to a message or update helps to quickly add context and ensure it’s understood.
5. Finally, but most importantly… They are fun! Not convinced? Give it a go in an upcoming piece of communications and see if you like it!
If you’re still unsure about what an emoji could be used for, why not learn more at http://emojipedia.org/.
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