Emojis first appeared in smartphone SMS threads, but now they're everywhere - today, you can even order lunch by tweeting an emoji.
In social media marketing, it's important to know that the most popular social media networks not only support emojis, but also have entire features built around them.
There are many ways brands can take advantage of these features and emojis...
Copy & Responses
The most intuitive way to use emojis is to use them in text.
Captions, descriptions, comments, tweets... the possibilities are endless - but adding an emoji or two to the end of a line of text is, of course, the most common use of those little cartoon characters. So how can you stand out?
One way is to replace words in your text with emojis - just make sure your message doesn't lose meaning in doing so.
If you're engaging with fans online, emojis are perfect for fun, humorous reactions - you can even drop the text all together and just use emojis to reply. It's a fun and visual way to get a message across, and even if your list of emojis might need a little deciphering, that can also add a fun challenge to your reader (within reason).
Instagram Profiles
Take a look at some influencers on Instagram and you'll notice that many use emojis in their profile. Making an emoji list in your bio is a clean, attention-grabbing way to lead your fans to check out your other social channels, sign up for a newsletter, watch your YouTube videos, and more.
For example, Breakroom uses emojis to make a visual, organized list as their Instagram bio.
Instagram Hashtags
You probably know that hashtags are king on Instagram - but did you know that you can use emojis as hashtags too? Enter an emoji into Instagram's search field and you'll get a listing of matches based on its use.
If you're posting a photo of food, there's a good chance that there's an emoji commonly associated with it.
Hashtags are essential to organic discovery on Instagram, so use emojis to your advantage.
Tumblr Tags
Are you on Tumblr? Then you know that tags are to Tumblr as hashtags are to Instagram, meaning they're essential for content discovery. And just like Instagram, you can use emojis as Tumblr tags as well.
Snapchat
Decorate your Snaps and stories with emojis. You can resize and rotate them and place them where you see fit. You can even attach them to objects if your Snap is a video.
Twitter Stickers
Twitter recently added a Stickers feature to their platform, which you can add to photos. And if you tap or click on a sticker, it leads to a search page where you can see how other users are using that sticker in their tweets.
If you're a brand with a big budget, you can even promote your own branded stickers.
Twitter Ads Targeting
On Twitter, emojis even play a part in targeted advertising. Via Twitter Ads, you can use emoji keyword targeting to "target people who have recently tweeted or engaged with tweets featuring emojis." Emojis can be powerful in this way - for example, you can determine the sentiment of a tweet or target people who are tweeting certain food emojis.
It's amazing to see how far emojis have come, and they're showing no signs of slowing down yet. Emojis are becoming an integrated part of internet language, so if it makes sense for your brand and content, use them.
This article was originally published on Likeable Media's blog.