Recently, Facebook introduced the feature of adding emojis to every public status, sparking a new wave of Facebook emoji marketing. You’ve probably noticed posts filled with smiley faces, green exclamation marks, red question marks, and more. Slowly but surely, emojis have become a trend visible across Facebook posts from official pages, businesses, and celebrities alike.

Emojis and algorithms

Soon after the emoji craze began, the digital agency Agorapulse conducted research on how emojis influence Facebook’s algorithms and affect social media engagement. Their findings showed that Facebook posts, comments, and photos featuring emojis receive 7.99% more impressions than posts without emojis. Engagement was 23.78% higher, and the number of clicks on each link increased by 28.87%. The specialists at Agorapulse believe that while you don’t need emojis in every post, regular use can significantly boost your page’s attractiveness and improve your overall emoji strategy.

Posts, comments, and photos featuring emojis receive 7.99% more impressions, 23.78% more engagement, and 28.87% more link clicks compared to posts without emojis.

Emotions before everything

From the early days of social media and chat apps, emojis have been used to convey real-life emotions that aren’t visible in online conversations. They replace the nonverbal cues we rely on when speaking face-to-face. People use emojis because they’re simple — a smiley face means “I’m happy,” a heart means “I love you,” and an exclamation mark means “Pay attention.” At the same time, emojis can enhance the context of a message and develop their own identity in Facebook emoji marketing.

Research shows that 55% of human communication is expressed through body language and 38% through vocal tone. This means the words we say are not the most critical part of human communication. People subconsciously interpret messages before a sentence is even finished. Unfortunately, this kind of nuanced communication is impossible in the digital world, which is where emojis become essential for Facebook posts and digital marketing trends.

55% of human communication is expressed through body language and 38% through vocal tone.

A few golden rules

Using emojis will undoubtedly attract attention to your Facebook posts, but there are a few golden rules for effective Facebook emoji marketing that you should keep in mind:

● Use them appropriately

Don’t put a smiley face on posts that might be sorrowful or controversial. A mistake like that can cause social media users to lose trust in your page. Remember, your audience interprets content through their own perception, and sometimes emojis can unintentionally make someone feel offended or excluded. That’s why Facebook developers continue to create more inclusive emojis (like dark skin tones, transgender flags, etc.). However, if you manage a business page, it’s safest to stick to basic emojis or punctuation marks.

● Keep it simple

There’s no need to use ten emojis in a row — it can distract from the core message of your post. If your business just won a prestigious award, you can indulge in five or ten celebratory emojis. However, in your regular posts, excessive emoji use can become overwhelming and counterproductive for your emoji strategy.

● Take into account the company policy and the specifics of the business

If you sell handmade beach bags, emojis can be a fun, colorful addition to your content. However, if you run a funeral service or a law firm, limit emoji use to an absolute minimum, possibly only occasional punctuation emojis.

A study titled ‘’The dark side of the smiley’’ found that using smiley emojis does not always convey warmth and friendliness. In serious business contexts, emojis can actually reduce perceptions of reliability and professionalism.

● Position, position, position

The best placement for emojis is either at the very start of the post or at the beginning of paragraphs. Avoid replacing individual words with emojis because it can make your posts look unprofessional and hard to read.

● Think about mobile users

More and more people scroll Facebook on their smartphones. Keep in mind that some emojis don’t display properly on mobile devices. Stick with simple, universal emojis to ensure consistency in your Facebook emoji marketing.

● Create your ‘’brand’’ of emojis.

While some apps like Viber let users create custom emojis, Facebook doesn’t have this feature. However, you can create a unique “brand” identity by choosing a combination of up to three emojis that represent your business and using them consistently. Just be careful not to copy emoji styles or combinations associated with competitors.

● Test and validate

Different audiences respond differently. There’s no universal formula for emoji success. Experiment and see what works best for your brand. For a month, try adding colorful emojis to your posts. Then analyze your audience’s response — are there more likes, shares, or comments? Or perhaps fewer? Once you identify the emoji approach that resonates best with your followers, you can confidently integrate it into your digital marketing strategy.

Tears of joy

Did you know that a study of over a million Facebook users conducted in October 2019 found that the most-used emoji is the tears of joy face? The second most-used is the red heart, followed by the heart eyes emoji. These trends offer insight into how emojis connect emotionally with audiences, making them powerful tools in Facebook emoji marketing.