Using emojis as part of your brand strategy on LinkedIn

It’s time to take the emoji seriously.

Seriously 🤔

➡️ Emoji's may seem like a bit of an 'add on' and I’m aware that many of you think that using emojis will damage your brand and make it seem less professional. 

Think again 🙇🏻

Today is World emoji day 🎉🥳

Yes, there is a whole day for the emoji 😲

This alone shows how relevant emojis have become in our world. It's time to introduce emojis as an important part of your branding strategy on LinkedIn. 

WHY SHOULD WE USE EMOJIS?

💜 Using emojis in your profile helps make it more 'readable' so you can add more text, keywords and information for your audience to absorb.

When was the last time you waded through a huge block of text on someone's personal profile?  If you see it peppered with emojis marking out headings and spaces, you're much more likely to read to the end.

✅ Visual cues help readability.

If people are reading the content on your profile two things happen:

✴️ The algorithm recognises that people are staying on your profile longer. We’re almost 100% sure this will help you come higher in searches for your relevant keywords and may also get your content pushed out to more people.

✴️ It brings people closer to buying from you.  The more that people read about you, the more they feel they know you, like you and trust you.

💜 Using emojis helps your posts stand out. With over a billion personal profiles on LinkedIn it's easy for your content to get hidden – literally drowned out by other posts. Having colour in your text will help your posts stand out above the others.

💜 Emojis can be a great way to express an emotion simply and clearly and can clarify the meaning of a sentence. The written word can sometimes be misconstrued, so using an emoji can help the reader understand the context of what you’re saying. Often, they’re used to highlight humour, so your comment doesn’t get taken too seriously. This can be invaluable – especially as your posts are likely to have readers from different countries and cultures.

💜 Having a palette of emojis which you use exclusively and consistently will help people see those emojis as synonymous with your brand. So, whenever someone see those emojis – even if they’re not on your profile or content - people will start to think of you. It takes a bit of time to develop that level of brand awareness, but it works – believe me, I’ve witnessed it with my own profile as well as my clients’.

HOW TO INCORPORATE EMOJIS INTO YOUR LINKEDIN BRANDING STRATEGY

 ① Identify an emoji palette

The first step is to identify an emoji palette of between 2 and 6 emojis which you and the team agree to use all the time. Try not to deviate and use other emojis as this will weaken the message.

Choose a palette which matches the branding of the company or has some synergy with the company. Depending on the name or the type of business, the amount of relevant emojis will vary. Construction companies have a great deal of choice, as do food, fitness and wellness companies. You could focus on colour alone. Using emoji squares, circles or triangles which match your branding. This can be extremely powerful and will help strengthen the brand message across LinkedIn in a strong and visual way.

② Incorporate the palette into your marketing suite

Once you have identified your emoji palette, incorporate it into your marketing suite so all the current and future employees are clear about which emojis to use.

DO EMOJIS HAVE TO BE COLOURFUL AND ‘LOUD’❓

NO! There are plenty of emojis which are black or grey, and some are very tiny.

▶ Here

✔️ are

▪️ some

⚫️ black

☑️ as

📂 well

ᐧ as

🔘 more

◽️subtle

⬛️ emojis

♾  to try

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

👉🏽 You can also use emojis to create lines to separate text. Here's a dotted line:

 ······················································································································································

and a line of lines:

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗

You could be clever and use different shapes:

▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾▾

Or you could leave spaces for a different effect:

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

The choice is huge 💥

WHERE DO WE FIND EMOJIS❓

⌨️ The type of keyboard you have on your computer will determine how you access the emoji menu. On a Mac keyboard, typing ‘CTRL+CMND+SPACE BAR works. On a PC try typing FN+ALT+SPACE or try the windows key+full stop

If none of these work you could try an emoji website which has emojis you can cut and paste into your text. Most of these are free. You could try:

Getemoji.com

or

Emojikeyboard.com

When you get to the emoji menu, you can search for specific emojis. Just type in what you're looking for in the 'search'. Your most recent searches will show first which could make your life a lot easier!

For example, I was looking for two emojis for the beginning of this blog:

I only use emojis which match my branding, so, no surprise, here is one of my search results!

I bet you didn't know there were so many purple emojis 💜

ACCESSIBILITY AND EMOJIS 👀

Screen readers don’t like emojis. They can find them difficult to interpret. Therefore, don’t use emojis in the middle of sentences. People using screen readers can get very confused when the screen reader tries to describe the emoji mid-sentence. So only use emojis at the beginning or end of sentences.

So there you have it. I would love to see you embrace emojis as part of your brand strategy. If you need help with that, you know where to find me! 🧡

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please make sure you hit ‘subscribe’ above and in a few weeks, you can read another one about something else you can do to improve your visibility on LinkedIn

Which emojis will you put in your brand palette?

Sarah 💜

📙 Author of 'Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn’ 📙

🔸 Keeping #LinkedInSimplified for CEO's Corporates and Teams. LinkedIn training and page management 🔸