As it’s #WorldEmojiDay we thought we’d take a look at the power of the emoji and how it has enabled social media to develop its own language!
But first, let’s go back to basics and find out where our ability and need to engage comes from. Social Media Today recently wrote an article on ‘social intelligence’, i.e. our ability to communicate and relate with others, to build relationships and to form social situations. And as technology has evolved, our basic human needs have evolved with it.
Marketing now plays heavily into social intelligence, as social media users demand a more personal and accessible touch when it comes to B2C businesses and being online. The article goes on to say: “Some 90% of social media users communicate with businesses through this medium, and 63% now expect brands to offer customer service through it.” This is why it is imperative you understand who your core audience is and make sure you get to know them. It will be useful to research the most effective times to post and what kind of content is most engaging for your audience.
Social Media slang
So now we know why we want a more engaging experience on social media, we can ask what is social media language and whether are we already ‘speaking’ it.
Social media platforms have developed their own ‘slang terms’ which are useful to know. So for instance, slang such as ‘slide in the DMs’ is mainly used on Twitter or Instagram, as it refers to direct messaging; being ‘Facebook official’ means you’ve publicly declared a relationship on Facebook. They all have particular meanings but often relate to a particular social media platform.
Take a look here to see a list of commonly used social media slang, and maybe you will recognise a few!
Emojis
Have you ever used an emoji in place of words? Maybe you’ve used a crying with laughter face instead of saying LOL? Then you can speak in Emoji! Emojis have actually been around since the late ‘90s, but have in recent years have become a firm favourite on texting platforms as well as social media platforms. Indeed, in 2015 the Oxford Dictionary named ‘face with tears of joy’ as it’s word of the year and recognised its influence on popular culture. And as we now have #WorldEmojiDay on 17th July, you can see how important they’ve become.
Visuals such as GIFS and memes
As Instagram is a platform used solely for visuals, you need to make sure what you are posting is not only of great quality, but also fits in with your branding and relates to your sole purpose: advertising. But it can also be a fantastic place to let your brand’s personality out in the form of GIFs and memes. An internet meme is an illustration or photo, humorous, that spreads across the internet, often with astonishing speed. Memes can be a fantastic way to enter a social conversation, especially when paired with the effective hashtags. You can adapt trending memes to fit within your brand, and make it relatable to your audience.
Hashtags
Hashtags are a social media marketer’s best friend when it comes to boosting impressions and engagement on campaigns. Using hashtags is a useful tool because your post will come up in searches when people looking for the subject. This not only helps raise awareness of your brand, but also has the potential to get people engaging with you. Do some research to find out what hashtags your competitors are using, or find out common hashtags that get a lot of engagement during the week. For example, the hashtag #MondayMotivation is a regularly used one, and will be engaged with by users all over the world.
So, all in all, if you want to create a social media marketing strategy that boosts engagement with your target audience, do your research on the kind of social media language that will draw them in and keep them engaged with you. Take our guidance and create some fun posts that features emojis, memes and lots of hashtags!
Need some inspiration or want someone to do it all for you? That is where our social media marketing experts come in. Contact us today to start chatting about your social media marketing or any other areas of your digital marketing that needs some TLC.
