3 Ways Your Business Can Take Advantage of Emojis

Love them or hate them, you’ll never be able to escape emoji’s; more than 60 million of them are used daily.

You might be shocked to hear this (insert shocked face), but there was actually a time before the emoji…

Yes, we know that sounds unbelievable, but the emoji wasn’t created until 1999. Since then, there are now 2,823 different emojis available to use which range from the sassy salsa dancer to the rolling eyes face and even a Japanese goblin; there really is an emoji to reflect every single one of our emotions.

This World Emoji Day we’re looking at how Instagram are stepping up the use of emoji’s and why you should consider using them for your business.

With research finding that 72% of 18-25 year olds (who make up a third of Instagram’s demographic) saying it was easier to communicate through the use of emojis rather than words, it’s no surprise that posts on Instagram containing emojis in the caption receive on average 47.7% more average interactions per post than those without.

Here we look at three ways you can measure your audiences ’emotions’ by allowing them to respond through emojis.

How much? 

Last year Instagram announced a new variation of its polling sticker for Stories using an emoji slider that lets you ask and answer questions with an emoji on a sliding scale.

The sliding scale allows users to ask people “how much” instead of simply picking between “which” two options, using an emoji. For example, you could have a slider to ask followers how much they love (heart eyes emoji) a new style of a product you’re about to launch. The emoji will animate as you drag it up or down the scale, and you can check in on how individuals answered as well as see the overall average of all responses.

Emotions or reactions…

With the rise in ephemeral content, brands are no longer depending on engagements but reactions. Brands can now make the most of a followers instant reaction to their content and create/share more or less of what’s getting reactions.

Instant reactions are the evolution of a standard like, love, hate engagement, allowing users eight reactions to choose from, Clap, Laugh, Love, Wow, Sad, & Fire/Lit, Perfect and Celebration. Followers can simply tap to send a message on a story and choose their desired one to react. Once done the screen is showered with the emoji reaction. The owner of the story will receive a push notification from Instagram telling them that a user has reacted to the story and it can be found in in the DM section. The creator can then go onto like someone’s reaction by simply opening the conversation and double tapping on the message that shows the reaction to your story, which could then open up further conversation.

Get emotions live…

Why go live? Well Instagram Live is all about engaging and connecting with your audience in real-time and don’t forget it bumps your content to the front of the queue in Stories at the top of user’s feeds.

Live take reactions to the next level as you can get follower feedback in real-time and it’s interactive, ultimately making it a strong tool for building relationships with your customers.

Wondering how you can use Live for your business? Have you thought about hosting a Q&A, or even launching or announce something new or providing followers with a behind the scenes of the business? 

Whilst live users are able to interact with your content live, ask queries, questions but also share their feelings through the use of emojis. This is a simple yet reflective way to gauge what customers think to what your brand is truly about. If you’ve just announced the launch of something new an are bombarded with ‘raise hands’ emoji then we’d say you’re onto a winner.

Want to hear how you can use emojis in your Instagram marketing? Give our Social Media team a