Being on Twitter a lot, I've noticed a big increase in emoji use recently. Some tweeps employ them in almost every tweet! And they have been getting some publicity in the most surprising ways, such as the widely reported fact that
Julie Bishop is an avid emoji user.
I haven't gotten into them yet. I'm much more of an old fashioned type who prefers the written word. But it's something I've got to look into eventually.
I can see why they are already popular on social media, and rapidly becoming more so. That's because emotions are key. And images, even little cartoon-like ones -- are a great way to convey emotion.
There seems to be a bit of an art to using them. They're similar to hashtags in this regard. You want to be thoughtful and selective and not overdo it by putting three or four of them in every tweet. And like hashtags,
branded emojis are a thing now. Will be interesting to see how this develops.
