Studies show that emoticons can help us gain more social media momentum, trust from our customers, and more credibility as experts. We’ve collated the research and here are the hard facts!
Why do they work?
- Easy to understand
- Reduces the need to read
- Can convey a message fast
Emoticons on Social:
A study of 31 million tweets and half a million Facebook post shows that positive emoticons get more social media engagement.
Simo Tchokni of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and her colleagues concluded that “The emoticon features achieved high performance, suggesting that there is a strong link between emoticon use and social power. Powerful users tend to use emoticons often and high Klout is strongly associated with positive emoticons.”
Emoticons and email marketing:
In a study by e-consultancy, they found emoticons has a positive effect on open rates. Some better than others. Most importantly if you are going to give this a crack, remember the context of the campaign and the emoticon you choose. Here are some of the top performing emoticons
- The snowman symbol is apparently hugely effective at encouraging people to open emails +65.72% over normal subjects
- In second place is a sun symbol +20.95%
Emotions and e-commerce websites:
In a test between an ordinary mobile e-commerce website and a radically redesigned mobile site with several changes, including use of emoticons to outline shipping and return policies, results have shown that emoticons can help customers feel happy about their purchase.
- More than 60% of the customers chose the website design using emoticons over the one that does not.
So the verdict is in, which emoticons have been viewed as ‘too casual’ in the past this is no longer the case. The modern marketer is looking for ways to make content more influential in the quickest amount of time, emotions will certainly help you to do so. But like with every test, try it out for yourself and let us know how it worked for you!