Written by: Alondra Adame
With the release of several new emojis every year, it’s gotten much easier for our society to use emojis in our everyday interactions. While it would be a stretch to say that we use emojis more than our own alphabet, emojis have been the subject of scrutiny over the years and some researchers even debate if emojis are becoming their own visual language like hieroglyphics!
Emojis have cemented their place in our digital language so much that even children who haven’t learned to read yet can communicate using emoji-only text messages. However, while children prefer longer abstract emoji strings full of things like animal or food emojis, adults use groups of two or five after a sequence of words like “I love you❤️❤️” or “I can’t wait! 🎉🎉🎉.” It is a whole other form of literacy and human expression that we have only barely begun to understand.
Despite this, emojis can still be used to our advantage! These are some simple ways to use emojis to entertain customers and add a little more flair to your social media posts.
Use Emojis Naturally
Using 50 emojis as a caption on Instagram is likely going to overwhelm most people who view your content. As mentioned previously, adults usually only use groups of two to five emojis after a sequence of words. Depending upon your demographic, one heart emoji on a Valentine’s Day post is a subtle but cute addition to your caption!
Another great way to use emojis naturally is available through social media polls. For example, a restaurant could post a poll on Instagram that asks “How spicy do you like your food?” and the options could be a few chili peppers or fire emojis. This way allows you to engage your audience in a playful way that also helps you gather data about their preferences!
Know the Meaning Behind the Emoji
Miscommunication is one of the top issues when using emojis. Be aware that some emojis like the peach or eggplant emoji can have double meanings that you might not want associated with your business. However, some places like public New York hospitals cleverly play on these innuendos, using the eggplant emoji as well as birds and bees emojis to create an entire emoji social media campaign about sexual health education for teens.
Avoid Confusing Consumers with Emojis
Don’t assume all of your customers are masters in the art of emoji. Social media is meant to help us all understand each other better and communicate more easily. Most people don’t want to spend more than a few seconds pondering how to translate your most recent post. Try to convey most of what you need to say into short messages or equal parts text and emoji. However, some emoji-only posts, like Budweiser’s beautiful emoji art piece made up of beer, American flag, and firework emojis, perform very well and show off your creativity! If you feel like you might not have the time to create the next great piece of social media art, Social High Rise has a few account managers who would love to spice up your social media pages.
While it is a slightly complicated way to communicate, emojis bring an aspect of human emotion that we typically lack in written communication. Emojis make our online interactions a little more fun and engaging which makes them worthy of their place in digital language.
Now that you’ve learned some of our tips on using emojis, let us know what you think! What are the top five emojis you use? How have emojis changed the way you perceive messages you receive online?
Did you know?
We've been managing social media accounts for restaurants since 2012. For almost a decade, we've partnered with restauranteurs who are serious about using social media to generate business. Whether you're a good fit for our service or not, let's schedule a call and we'll give you free personalized advice on how to improve your social media presence. Either way, you'll walk away from the call more confident about your ability to promote yourself online - completely for free.
