How to Use Emojis and Emoji Shortcuts to Improve Engagement and Be More Memorable

Crying laughing.Heart eyes.Fire.Eggplant.Be honest, did you think of an emoji while reading any of these words? ????Maybe you often select these while typing text messages on your phone, or when using emoji shortcuts on your desktop.Emojis have become part of our language, especially in social media, messaging and online content. Not convinced? Even the dictionary uses emojis! The Oxford Dictionary chose an emoji as their word of the year in 2015.There’s no shortage of emoji use on social media and in messaging apps. According to a study by the Emogi Research Team, 90% of people use emojis with 30% using them more than once a day.

via GIPHYEmojis have found their place in human communication and this a fantastic thing for anyone who uses social media to promote their business.

Why You Should Use Emojis in Marketing

Emojis offer you another way to promote your content and connect with your audience. They are fun, engaging, personable and relatable, which is everything your content should be!Emojis can also make your content more engaging. Consider these stats:

• Tweets with emojis resulted in 25.4% more engagement.
• Facebook posts with emojis resulted in 57% more likes, 33% more comments, and 33% more shares.
• On Instagram, nearly 50% of all comments and captions contain emojis.

Engagement isn’t all that emojis can do for you. Emojis might make your content more memorable too. A recent study found that participants who received messages with emojis scored higher on memory than those who sent messages without emojis.The same study found that emojis can make your business seem friendlier. Participants who chatted with experts who used emojis rated them as friendlier and more competent than those who chatted with experts who did not use emojis.Engaging + memorable + friendly, that sounds like a perfect recipe for high-quality social media posts so it might be time to start mixing in emojis into your content.[sc name="ad1"]

Using Emoji Shortcuts on Your Computer

Emojis are easy to find on your phone but if you create content on your computer, you might need to access emojis there too. Here are two easy emoji shortcuts for Mac and windows.

Emoji shortcuts for Mac

1. In any text box, like say, for example, your Edgar updates, place your cursor where you’d like your emoji placed.Then, press Control + Command + Space to bring up your emoji options.3. This will pull up your emoji menu. Scroll through and choose whichever emoji you love!

Emoji shortcuts for Windows

1. Place your cursor where you’d like your emoji placed.2. Press Win + period (.) or the Win + semicolon (;).3. This will bring up your emoji menu. Scroll through and select the emoji you’d like inserted into your content.

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Some tools and social media platforms have their own emoji shortcuts. Facebook, for example, has the emoji shortcuts button next to the text field when commenting on a Facebook post. This makes it even easier to use emojis.

How To Use Emojis in Your Content

When you use emojis the most important thing to remember is to use them authentically. Emojis are a quick way to respond or promote content but if you use too many, you can quickly come off looking spammy and like a bot. Here are three easy ways you can start using emojis in your content.

1. In responses and comments

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Whether you’re asking a question to another user or responding to one of their comments, emojis can go a long way in helping your response stand out and express your feelings for the conversation.

2. In your profile

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Emojis are a great way to add a little more personality to your profile and persuade someone to spend a little more time looking at your profile. Remember that human brains process images 60,000 faster than text and you may only have a few seconds to make an impression on someone when they are looking at your profile!

3. To emphasize content

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Emojis can break up your content so that it’s easier to read and more eye-catching to the user. We often try to communicate as directly as possible on social media while still providing context and personality and making the post interesting enough to get the user to stop and consume it. That’s a lot of pressure to put on simple text! Adding in some emojis will make it easier to share more without wasting valuable character.Emojis are an easy to use and powerful way to communicate with your audience. We’d love to hear how you use emojis in your content. Let us know below!