Brand and Social Trend: Emoji Use on the Rise

A recent survey conducted by Emogi (a real-time platform that decodes sentiment in online posts) found that 84 percent of women and 75 percent of men believe that emojis express their feelings more accurately than words. The survey also showed that not only are all generations using emojis, but they are using them often – 30.4 percent use emojis several times a day and 33.5 percent several times a week.

Brands are jumping in on the trend, too, and creating unique emojis for their social media campaigns!

In September, Twitter worked with Coke to create the #shareacoke emoji – its first paid brand emoji. This cute image with two Coke bottles automatically pops up when users tweet the hashtag #shareacoke. While Twitter has created the same emoji pop-up function for Star Wars and the MTV Video Music Awards, this is the first time it has been part of an ad deal.

Similarly, Dove Love Your Curls recently announced a partnership with Twitter that auto-generates a custom Dove curly-haired emoji every time #LoveYourCurls hashtag is tweeted. Dove also launched a free emoji keyboard with 27 curly hair designs and 131 variations of skin tones and hair colors. We have previously worked with the Dove Love Your Curls and love the message behind the campaign, which makes us particularly excited about these curly-haired emojis!

Dominos is a key player among brands revolutionizing emoji use for consumers. They’ve introduced a way to let their registered customers order a pizza by tweeting #EASYORDER or the slice of pizza emoji (????) to @Dominos. 

Dennis Maloney, the company’s chief digital officer says, “This wasn’t just a marketing campaign, we’re creating an ordering platform.”

It will be interesting to watch how emojis become a more integrated part of brands’ social media campaigns and customer experiences in the future.

In fact, @theMotherhood recently tweeted its inaugural emojis during a Twitter party on behalf of LISTERINE last week that garnered nearly 4,000 tweets and 25 million impressions, triggering a $20,000 donation from LISTERINE to Oral Health America’s FALL FOR SMILES campaign! You can see a couple example tweets with those emojis here:

Now, take a look at some of our team’s favorite and most-used emojis:

???? Purple heart + ???? Dog

Cooper: I sign all my texts to my kids with a purple heart. And the dog, because it kind of looks like our dog, Atticus!

???? Baby

Serena: I’ve been using the baby emoji almost daily lately since I’m expecting my first little one in April!

???? Party Popper

Erin: My most-used emoji is the one that looks like a noisemaker with confetti and streamers. I use it to show enthusiasm and support, or excitement for an upcoming celebration.

???? Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes + ???? Horse

Kahlianne: I definitely overuse the grinning smiling face, but I make the same face all the time when I read tweets/messages so it’s the perfect reply! And horses are involved in the majority of my conversations, so its only natural I use the horse emoji all the time.

???? Face With Tears of Joy

Brittnee: I love using the smiling/crying emoji because I feel like it replaces the “LOL” that so many of us became accustomed to using 15 years ago as a way of indicating a laugh and smile during conversations.

Brittney: I use this one frequently when texting family to tell them hilarious things my toddler says and does. At least half of those texts also include ???? to convey her sassy personality!

???? Thumbs Up Sign

Nicole: For me, the thumbs up emoji replaces “OK” and “sounds good” in so many texting conversations and when making plans with friends. I even use the thumbs up when I’m texting about something I love, like a new song that comes out or a meal I just tried.

???? Waving Hand Sign + ???? Face Throwing a Kiss

Kayla: I use the waving hand constantly to say hello or to show that I’m over a subject by saying ‘bye!’ to it! I also use the blowing a kiss emoji with my family and my best friends because they mean the world to me and I love them tons!

???? Sunflower

Sarah: Sunflowers are my favorite flower and seeing one always makes me smile! I like to use this emoji to brighten someone’s day!

What are your most-used emojis?