Emojis make content more playful, resulting in more people engaging with it.
To measure the impact of emojis, researchers looked at 41,141 tweets from well-known brands and personalities. The results of this investigation were followed up with lab and online tests.
To improve social media engagement, use emojis in conjunction with text.
Recommendation
The use of emojis in social media can make your messages more entertaining, which leads to better engagement.
Emojis should be used before language that is closely related to the emoji to accentuate and create a visual representation.
Effect
- On average, emoji-enhanced social media posts receive more engagement than those that do not. The more emojis you use, the better, but don’t overdo it.
- The effect is highest when emojis are followed by a relevant sentence that complements one another.
- Emojis offer a sense of fun to the reader. Rich online interactions are driven by playfulness. As a result, they cultivate strong brand-consumer relationships.
- Emojis have been shown to decrease misinterpretations and are effective at conveying emotions in previous studies. Messages featuring emojis, on the other hand, can be seen as less trustworthy and lessen the amount of information readers process.
Why it works
- We enjoy and are intrigued by lively exchanges. Emojis amp up the fun factor of posts.
- Previous study has shown that fun interactions help people form secure and healthy relationships. This can be extended to brand-to-person interactions on the internet.
Limitations
- The study focused solely on Twitter. The psychological effects, on the other hand, should apply to other platforms as well.
- Emoji reactions will differ depending on the personality of the business, the nature of the relationship, or the consumer’s intent when reading the information.
- For utilitarian brands, playful interaction is more effective (e.g. a restaurant or celebrity vs an accounting firm).
Steps to implement
- If your brand allows it and the platform allows it (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. ), interact with users on social media in a playful manner.
- Use emojis that interact with text and arrange them before or within the text for the best results.
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