Love them ๐ or just ๐ them, emojis have become a central component in our online conversations. In fact, 95% of internet users have sent an emoji at some point and a whopping 10 billion emojis are sent each day! ๐ฎ
Think about all the ways emojis add to your text conversations. Perhaps you use emojis to amplify your message, or clarify the tone of a risky text ๐ฌ. If youโre at a loss for words, you can use an emoji to convey powerful sentiments without typing out lengthy sentences.
We may not be certified emoji scientists (yetโฆ ๐ฉโ๐ฌ) but thankfully, there are a lot of studies being performed to examine the impact of emojis on communication and connection. Experts seem to agree that emojis help communication immensely!
โTone of voice, facial expressions, gestures โ these are all vital elements of face-to-face communication, but theyโre stripped away in writing. Emoji offers a way of compensating for this.โ
Dr. Daria J. Kuss ๐ฉ๐ปโ๐ผ
Thereโs also some pretty cool research out there to support a correlation between using emojis for Instagram and higher follower counts. According to Quintly, only 24% of profiles with 1 to 1,000 followers used emojis, while 83% of profiles with over 1 million followers peppered their captions with emoji icons. If you also factor in a 15% higher interaction rate with posts including emojis, itโs clear that emojis help foster connection and relatability with your followers. Score! ๐ฅ ๐
The best part is, emojis (or emoticons) are universally understood. Even if we canโt read the language the caption is written in, we easily interpret emojis!
For example, Christi Lukasiak uses emojis to illustrate key points of her caption.
Even if English isnโt your first language, you could probably guess the topic of the caption from the emojis used. (New York and wine ๐ท? Whatever it is, weโre in. ๐โโ๏ธ๐จ)
Cool, huh? Emojis can be pretty powerful. ๐ช
Letโs talk about all the ways emojis amplify your message to your followers.
Now that you know how powerful emojis are for engaging with your audience and boosting interaction, letโs talk about some ways you can use them!
Dominique Cosmetics uses emojis to catch the readerโs attention and convey their message visually.
You can spice up your captions this way, too. First, decide what your core message is. Are you launching a new product? ๐๐ Promoting a new service? ๐จโ๐ผ Perhaps you just want to say hey to your followers, and spark a conversation in the comments. ๐
Emojis can help you with all of this and more!
Once youโre clear on that core message, pick the emojis that will best support or relate to that message. Letโs use Dominique Cosmetics as an example. The cosmetics company used just three emojis to perfectly sum up their message: Alert: a new highlighter just dropped, get it before itโs gone!
The siren ๐จ stops followers mid-scroll, the sparkles โจ perfectly sum up the product, and the shopping bag ๐ tips off readers on their next step (go buy it now).
Finally, consider the placement of the emojis for the best visibility and comprehension. Dominique Cosmetics did this perfectly by including emojis at the beginning or end of each caption sentence.
Picking the perfect emojis for your caption message has never been easier, now that we have Emoji Picker! This easy-to-use emoji keyboard allows you to search for icons and add them to your text with just a few clicks on your desktop.
Hereโs how to use Emoji Picker in just a few quick steps:
The Emoji Picker will also note your frequently-used emojis and display them at the top of the menu for easy access. You can also choose your desired emoji skin tone at the bottom of the Emoji Picker dropdown to automatically change all the customizable emojis at once! ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ๐๐ผโโ๏ธ๐๐ฝโโ๏ธ๐๐พโโ๏ธ๐๐ฟโโ๏ธ
While emojis can really boost your story telling and sales copy, you can also use emojis to simply dress up a post or make your content more FUN!
Case in point, family blogger Mikaela Jeannetteโs post about cruise prep. ๐ข
We love the way Mikaela dressed up her post with cruise-themed emojis. In this case, Mikaela is asking for cruise packing tips and must haves. However, while using a pencil emoji โ๏ธ or a list emoji ๐ might be more literally representative of the post, itโs a lot less visually interesting (and fun!) than the cruise ship, anchor, and water droplets. ๐ขโ๏ธ๐ฆ
So what does this mean for your caption? You donโt have to use your emojis in a literal interpretation of the text. Instead, choose colorful emojis that evoke positive mental connections while still relating to the overall theme or topic of your post. This strategy will help boost engagement in your likes and comments!
You might find yourself in a hurry to plan your Instagram content without having a ton of time to pick a perfect series of emojis for your caption. Thatโs okay โ even just one emoji can help boost interaction with your post.
Take More Adventures does a lot with a little in their caption. Just one puppy emoji ๐ถ (awww) perfectly accents the text, conveys the subject of the picture, and draws the eye right before the call to action.
That example of emoji usage is simple, but doggone effective! ๐
Emojis are a key part of communicating with your audience over text, especially in your Instagram caption. Emojis boost relatability, connection and community with your readers- and theyโre easier than ever to use with the Emoji Picker for Tailwind!
Looking for ways to include emojis in your Instagram caption? Here are some of our favorite ways to do it:
These are just some of the ways you can spice up your Instagram captions with emojis. Feel free to experiment: after all, the emojis you choose for your captions also give your readers an important glimpse of your brand personality. ๐โโ๏ธ Your captions will benefit the most from emojis that capture the essence of your business and welcome your followers into conversation and connection! ๐ฃ
Pssstโฆ Looking for other ways to express your brand personality on your Instagram profile? Check out our 8 Instagram Ideas for a Profile That Pops! ๐ฅ
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Great tips that make a lot of sense. Thanks! ๐๐ฝ
Thanks Maya! Hope they were helpful to you. :)
Thanks ๐๐ป
You're welcome, Megan! I'm glad you enjoyed the article. :)
Hey Kristen, thanks for sharing this in-depth post, I personally noticed after adding emojis to captions followers are more engaged and we get more likes and comments on our instagram post.
Hi Rishabh, I'm so glad to hear that you liked this post, and that emojis have boosted your audience engagement on Instagram! Thanks for your comment. :)
Except on some Macs and computers - those emojis look like questions marks in a square instead of a story. So DON'T use emojis instead of actual text... as some people will not see the caption correctly.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6pvszxzdm3p0cq/emojierror.png?dl=0
Hi Mark! Those question mark boxes appear when the viewers OS system doesn't support the emoji, which is particularly tricky with some of the newer emojis that come out! This is commonly associated with the viewing user not having the most current OS, as new emojis are added periodically with each update. So if you don't update your device, you may see this question mark box when someone uses a new emoji from a more current update version.
Generally, classic emojis are safe to use, but you bring up an excellent point about being judicious when it comes to the percent of your viewers on Instagram with an up-to-date operating system, and whether you think this might be a widespread issue in your following.
One tool I love to see exactly how an emoji will look on each different OS, and what new emojis are included in each update on both emoji and Unicode is emojipedia.com. I hope this helps!