Decoding Digital Conversations- The Role of Emoji Images in Modern Communication

They say actions speak louder than words; however, in a digitally propelled life, emojis do all the talking. At the dawn of their creation, emojis were used to add an entertaining shade to the main message; nowadays, it’s an integral part of communication regardless of the sphere. Emojis changed the way the messages are perceived, as they are more expressive and add depth to emotions. Let’s discover how emojis influence our daily communication and activities.

What Are the Emojis?

Emojis are special symbols that resemble Japanese comics, and help to set emotional bonds between the speakers in a faceless digital communication. Emojis complement digital conversations, which lack body language, and infuse personal touches into the reactions.

When the emojis accompany emails, texts, posts, and messages, the communicators don’t feel any barriers, which elevates the level of trust and openness.

What Are the Functions of Emojis?

Emojis complement modern-day digital communication regardless of the sphere.

1.   Business Communication

Business communication has always been taken as rather reserved and emotionless, as it is dedicated strictly to work-related issues. However, the emoji images managed to change even such a stiff environment.

• Setting new connections

Emojis, when balanced and properly chosen, can be used as ice-breakers and help people get off on the right foot. They convey honesty and readiness for cooperation without excessive verbosity.

• Atmosphere in the workplace

The workplace and its environment are always guided by the duties and responsibilities of its workers. Nowadays, team chats help to regulate all the processes within the company. However, when all the talking is done within formal limits, the employees don’t feel an amicable and welcoming atmosphere, which makes them unable to relax in the workplace. Proper usage of emojis will lift the spirit of colleagues, elevate the feeling of happiness, and bring more positivity into the air.

• More freedom of self-expression

There are more than 3000 emojis and emoticons in every messenger, not to mention a multitude of stickers. Such a variability lets the users target the right emotion, and express their thoughts to others when they feel a lack of targeting words.

• Concise replies

One emoji can replace a thousand words. Instead of writing lengthy posts, and trying to choose the right words, emojis can do all the talking with the right emotional state. It saves time for communicating the right messages and simplifies life for those who are bad with words.

2.   Marketing

Marketing seems to be the most beneficial industry where emojis find the best usage.

• Advertisements – ads are supposed to be catchy, concise, and meaningful. The tiny, and well-chosen mood icons help to catch the attention of the target audience and set the right tone for the message. As a rule, there should be three to four emojis in the same post, without repetitions.
• The tone of voice – every company entering the market conducts communication with its customers in a certain way. The usage of emojis is particularly helpful when targeting the audience of social media websites, as it’s their primary communication tool.
• Customer engagement – emojis break the initial resilience towards the ads, and notifications from the businesses, taking the readers straight to the point. It has been proven that emoji-less messages will attract less attention, and look more hostile, compared to those with a balanced number of emojis.

3.   Interpersonal communication

Emojis are simply irreplaceable when it comes to interpersonal communication. People are so used to seeing smiles, and stickers that a message without them is taken as a signal to problems.

Emojis add a friendly touch, express happiness, sadness, frustration, and joy, and simply let people demonstrate their attitude toward a particular situation without torturing themselves with the right choice of words.

4.   ‘International’ language

English is an international language and a barrier-breaker among nations globally. There once has been a try to create a new, artificial language, Esperanto, to make it a universal and global language; however, this idea found just a few followers.

Emojis, in contrast, unexpectedly became a global universal language, which resonates with people’s emotions and feelings regardless of the location or mother tongue.

The Main Rules for the Emoji Usage

1. Don’t overdo emojis – emojis are fun, and let to eliminate communication barriers; however, their number matters. When there are too many, it brings disruption into the main message, leaving the partner/readers in dismay.
2. Use emojis appropriately – the emojis to use in the workplace and with friends are different. In the business sphere, it is recommended to go for neutral options, which will send the right message, yet will not hurt the feelings of the users. Communication with friends is guided by the overall style of communication and level of trust in each other, thus, it allows more expressive options.
3. Enhance the text, but don’t replace it. With all the beneficial influence of emojis in digital communication, we still need to learn to express ourselves with words. Therefore, don’t try to replace the depth of your ideas and thoughts with a single emoji, no matter how cute or expressive they are.

The Bottom Line

Emojis are conversation helpers, which complement our messages setting the right tone and mood to the information. Emojis are now used in every type of communication, helping to build trust among users and create an atmosphere of positivity in groups or teams of people.

However, it is important to use emojis wisely, and not to let them lose your ‘speaking skills’. Only the combination of both will elevate and maximize the results of the conversation.