How to Make the Most of the Emoji in Content Marketing

Four ways brands have used the psychological power of emojis in their social media and content marketing strategies — and you can, too.

An emoji can say a thousand words. In fact, I’ve been able to have entire conversations using just emojis (don’t lie — you do it, too).

As social media continues to grow in popularity (and character counts continue to shrink), communication will begin to heavily rely on these digital pictorial representations of our emotions. And I’m not complaining. Sometimes the best way to get a point across is with a smiley.

I’m not alone in my love for emojis. According to Swyft Media, active users of Internet-based messaging apps send an average of 96 emojis or stickers per day. From text messages to social media to marketing, they’ve taken over the way we communicate. So what is it about our beloved emojis that make them such a powerful communication tool?

Last year, Dr. Owen Churches, a post-doctoral fellow at the school of psychology at Flinders University in Australia, conducted a study of emoticons and found that people reacted to emoticons the same way they would react to an actual human face or expression.

Churches explains here: “Before 1982 there would be no reason that ‘:-)’ would activate face sensitive areas of the cortex but now it does because we’ve learnt that this represents a face. This is an entirely culturally-created neural response. It’s really quite amazing.”

It’s because of our emotional response to emojis that they’ve become such an asset to marketers. Here are four ways brands have used the psychological power of emojis in their social media and content marketing strategies:

1. Let emojis do the talking.

When it comes to evoking an emotional response from consumers, what better marketing tool to use than the emoji? Emojis capture the attention and appeal to the emotions of consumers because they’re relatable — we all use them.

In March 2014, animal rights organization PETA decided to let emojis do the talking in a campaign aptly named “Beyond Words,” in which emojis were used to communicate a series of powerful messages. The campaign was aimed at increasing engagement with their target audience and encouraged users to get involved and support the cause by texting a heart emoji.

When it comes to content marketing, sometimes less can be more.

2. Get social with emojis.

A recent analysis of more than 31 million tweets and half a million Facebook posts by Simo Tchokni and her colleagues of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory revealed that emoticon use is a strong predictor of social status online.

“The emoticon features achieved high performance, suggesting that there is a strong link between emoticon use and social power,” the study stated. “Powerful users tend to use emoticons often and high Klout is strongly associated with positive emoticons.”

Take Bud Light, for example. For last year’s Fourth of July, the company posted an American flag emoji tweet composed of fireworks, flags, and, of course, beer. To date, the tweet has nearly 150,000 retweets and 113,000 favorites.

The key to using emojis in social media and content marketing is to know how emojis fit your brand’s voice, tone, and, most importantly, audience.

3. Visually explain with emojis.

Infographics play a huge role in content marketing — they’re fun, attractive, and easy to digest. So why not incorporate emojis into your visual content? GE did just that by creating a periodic table of the elements with emojis, with an interesting fact or video that corresponds to each emoji.

GE asked fans to join it on Snapchat and send in an emoji. In exchange, the brand sent back a science experiment inspired by the emoji keyboard. Sydney Lestrud, manager of global marketing at GE, said the campaign was “our way of responding with science in a really fun and hopefully relatable way.”

The White House also took advantage of the emoji as a communication tool by creating an infographic about Millennials that featured a number of popular emojis.

4. Create branded emojis.

Why limit your social media and content marketing efforts to the run-of-the-mill emojis everyone uses? Brands are increasingly recognizing the importance of creating brand-specific emojis. By tailoring emojis to fit your unique brand, you’re not only attracting and communicating with consumers, but also tying that communication back to your brand.

For instance, CNN created emojis for all of the 2016 U.S. presidential election contenders. Brands like IKEA are also creating their own one-of-a-kind emojis. And why not? Emojis are visual, memorable, and have a great potential to go viral.

What do you think? What are some other ways brands can use emojis in their content marketing strategy?