Emojis have long been one of the most popular means of digital expression. We use them daily on WhatsApp, social networks, email… they are now a natural part of our everyday language.
Twitter has had no choice but to surrender to the evidence of the power of emojis. And it has done so by starting to test a new function that allows users to react to a publication through five different emojis, something similar to what happens on Facebook and other social networks.
For now, this new feature is only available in Turkey, but that’s a start.
The evolution of the Twitter “Like” button
Until now, the platform has allowed ‘likes’ on tweets, but the intention is to be able to select the reaction from five emojis: interesting, sad, funny, hands clapping and a red heart for the existing ‘like’. Twitter told TechCrunch, pending the outcome of tests of the new feature.
Reactions already appear in Twitter’s direct messages, but it was last March when it was announced that they were coming to tweets, after consulting users about what kind of reactions they preferred and giving them a choice between different options.
From the original list, and to avoid possible detrimental effects on conversations on the platform, Twitter has decided to remove reactions or emojis that have negative meanings.
A Twitter spokesperson has been very clear on this point, pointing out that although ‘frustration’ and ‘anger’ are also common emotions that people feel when reading tweets, and a way of expressing their disagreement, the platform is not going to incorporate them into emoji reactions.
As we said, for now Twitter’s reactions or emojis are in an experimental phase among the platform’s users in Turkey. Once Twitter has evaluated the effect of these emojis in conversations, perhaps we will all be able to use them.
The potential of emojis
This terminology is of Japanese origin, meaning “image + word”. It was created by the Japanese communications company NTT DoComo, and since then emojis have continued to grow in popularity and variety.
The purpose of emojis is to express emotions and thoughts that text alone cannot describe. In some cases, there are emojis that can completely replace words, being even more effective than them.
But the use of emojis is no longer just one of our daily habits in our conversations on WhatsApp and social networks, but companies are also making use of them.
The use of emojis by brands
In content marketing, all the possible elements that complement quality information must be present.
And it is essential that a brand expresses itself clearly enough for its audience to understand and grasp its personality.
At this point, the use of emojis in the Digital Marketing strategy, like the ones we do in Somos Sinapsis, allows to amplify the brand’s message. How? In the following way:
- Transmitting emotions while making messages visually more entertaining.
- Expressing more and better than many words, but immediately and taking up little space.
- By provoking positive effects on the human brain.
How could Twitter miss out on the potential of emojis, even in a measured way? Now we just have to wait 🤔