I know I used ? in the title, but I really meant ?. Personally, I’m not sold on the use of emojis (graphical representations of emoticons). In the realm of business communications, I find emojis somewhere in between texting shortcuts and cussing. Personally, I love using them at the end of a really sarcastic Facebook comment, just to let the person know I don’t want them to punch me in the face. ?

What is an Emoji?

An emoji is a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication. The term emoji is borrowed from Japanese, and comes from e picture + moji letter or character.

Then what’s an Emoticon?

An emoticon is a facial expression composed of keyboard characters, such as ;), where as an emoji would be ?.

Emojis have become a part of everyday human language. In fact, the 2015 Emoji Report by Emogi Research found 92% of the online population uses emojis, and 70% said emojis helped them to express their feelings more effectively In 2015, the Oxford dictionary even chose an emoji as the word of the year! ?

But they are being used effectively by some marketers! In fact, brands have increased usage of emojis by 777% since January of 2015.

This infographic from Signal walks through many examples of use. Bud Light, Saturday Night Live, Burger King, Domino’s, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell have incorporated emojis into their marketing communications. And it’s working! Emoji-enabled ads generate click-through rates 20x higher than the industry standard

Signal also details some of the challenges with Emojis. Check out the infographic below! ?