If you've ever used a cellphone or the internet, then you've probably seen an emoji at one point or another. They're a fun expressive way to share feelings, react to things, or even create an actual message. We relate them to thoughts, expressions, and feelings and some of us even associate certain emojis to specific friends, occasions or moments.
Emojis are great to add personality and a little something extra to content or messages. They can help convey emotion or a certain feeling to a message that may otherwise be flat or ambiguous. Just sending someone "K." makes the receiver of the message think you're mad at them, whereas "K 😀." looks a lot friendlier and not mad. But this raises a question of whether emojis are appropriate to use in the business sense. How can you utilize emojis in a positive and brand-safe manner?
The Right way to Use Emojis for your Business
Choose an emoji that'll connect with your audience
You need to be mindful of how people use emojis. You don't want to accidentally send something that has an alternate meaning to many people. A good example of this is this emoji: 🙏🏻. Many people would call this the 'high-five' emoji, whereas a lot of other people thought this emoji meant 'thank you' or was showing prayer.
Limit the use of emojis
Please don't go crazy on emojis. Just because you're targeting millennials doesn't mean they can't speak, read and/or write in anything other than emoji. You typically don't want to use more than 1-3 emojis at a time when creating content. Use too many and you risk distracting your audience or making your brand or message look cheap and cluttered.
Consider the look of emojis
Don't use them if they are not necessary. If you can get by without emojis than do it. If you feel it's necessary for your content than use them. Keep in mind the appearance of emojis though. Different platforms and browsers may display emojis differently, or in some cases, not at all. Using them in marketing and advertising might help make your ad "blend in". On platforms and areas that use a lot of emojis (say Instagram?), using emojis can actually help make your ads look more natural and blend in with other posts around them. People may not even think they're ads!
