Emojis are probably the most prolific pictorial language used today, but why? And what does it mean for conversation between businesses and customers? Is there a place for emojis in your dialogue with customers? In this talk, we’ll look at why we use emojis, some emoji history, and what we can learn from emojis about communication with others. I’ll share examples of emoji use from different brands and people, some with positive results and some exchanges that didn’t go so well. ABOUT RACHEL PETERS Once upon a time I was a high school English teacher. When I ran away screaming from that and into the arms of grad school, I discovered the world of UX, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Currently I’m the UX Lead for Launch Interactive, an agency in downtown Atlanta. You can learn more about Launch at http://www.launchjourney.com/.

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Rachel Peters
August 3, 2016

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/bitmoji

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Why do we use emojis?
Where did they come from?
What can we learn about people from emojis?
What can we learn about content?
If people can talk with emojis, can brands? (without it being fake or weird?)

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💪

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🎉

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💪🎉💪🎉

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Why emojis?

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Smile, You’re Speaking Emoji: The rapid evolution of a wordless tongue. New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/emojis-rapid-evolution.html
Emojis “attempt to bridge the difficult gap
between what we feel and what we intend and
what we say and what we text.”

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😡

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Emoji. Womanzine. https://issuu.com/lindseyweber5/docs/emoji_by_womanzine
“Emoji, like all images, allow us to project our
own emotions, reactions, and interactions, and
perhaps make it even easier to receive and
process them.”

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🎉 🍻 🍟

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🔫🍑🔪

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🔫🍑🔪

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🔫🍑🔪

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Any guesses on America’s favorite emojis?

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meat
royalty
“female oriented”
LGBT
the egg plant 👬 🍆 🍖

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Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/22/emoji-report-will-bear-your-soul-to-the-world_n_7116706.html
😂😆😏😋
😀☺😜😊

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Where did emojis come from?

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Hieroglyphics & Rebus Puzzles

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May I see you home my dear?
Hieroglyphics & Rebus Puzzles

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Rebus Puzzles
•Annoying
•For children
•Funny
•Clever

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“(Rebus) actually require a lot of cognitive effort, so they
assume a level of playfulness on both the part of the writer and
the reader. It’s an inside joke.” -David Crystal, linguist

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Rolling in the Deep - Adele Firework - Katy Perry
People type songs…

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People type books…

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Even the Bible!

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:-)

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Shigetaka Kurita

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On a Mac:
Cmd + Ctrl + Space
On a PC:
Use Touch Keyboard

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45. 31

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😂

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What can emojis tell us
about people?

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92%

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92%

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What can emojis tell us about people?
•Identity matters
•Images are ambiguous
•Emojis can’t replace language
•Sincerity is key

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Identity Matters

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–Alyson Krueger, Forbes contributor
“As much as people love emojis and as big as they’ve
gotten, they are still missing a key thing: identity.”

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😂😀😁😆😉😌
😍😎😜😩😳😃

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Emoji. Womanzine. https://issuu.com/lindseyweber5/docs/emoji_by_womanzine
“The unspoken message is that emoji
are not meant to reflect a black reality
or the reality of any person of color,
because our realities simply don’t
matter enough.”

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“Apple took the easy way out.
Instead of creating actual
emojis of color, Apple simply
allows its users to make white
emoji a different color…
These new figures aren’t emoji
of color; they’re just white
emoji wearing masks.”
Washington Post article

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Sexual discrimination

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Sexist emojis?!?

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So I wonder…

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What is the impact to society when one of our youngest
audiences—teens—are using a set of emojis that doesn’t
actually reflect the world we live in?
So I wonder…

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What is the impact to society when one of our youngest
audiences—teens—are using a set of emojis that doesn’t
actually reflect the world we live in?
Does a limited set of emojis suggest, even subtly, to young
girls that women can only aspire to become brides or Playboy
bunnies?
So I wonder…

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#likeagirl

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Read the article: http://mashable.com/2016/07/14/new-awesome-female-emoji/#quMIqaCGemqF

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Michele Baeten, associate brand director and lead Always “Like a Girl” leader
at Procter & Gamble
“...we found that 7 out of 10 girls even felt that
society limits them, by projecting what they
should or should not do, or be.”

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“If you are too generic, you
have no meaning. If you are
too realistic, it gets creepy.”
Alyson Krueger, Forbes contributor

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$100
million

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Images are ambiguous

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🍑 🍆

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🍑 🍆
Food or something more?

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🙏

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🙏
Prayer or high five?

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💩

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💩
(It means good luck.) What?

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💩
Apple vs Android

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Um…

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🍑 🍆

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🔌

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–Adam Sternbergh, nymag.com
“We smile with hearts in our eyes. We cry tears of joy. We
say ‘I love you,’ but in a million different ways, each one
freighted with the particular meaning we hope fervently to
convey, then send them out hopefully, like a smiley face in
a bottle, waiting to be received by the exact person it was
intended for, and opened up, and understood completely.”

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🍑

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Agree? Support? Like? Love?

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Image source: http://jessiqueen.com/like-favorite-love-icon/

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Emojis can’t replace language

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Read about it at https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/20/swiftkey-officially-unwraps-its-emoji-prediction-app/

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Adam Sternbergh, nymag.com
“This new way will not replace all the old ways, but it can
augment them and help us muddle through. In lieu of being
able to read each other’s faces when we say these things,
we’ve developed these surrogate faces.”

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Sincerity is key

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Let me tell you a story…

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Sincerity matters. People want to feel that you care and
that you are sincere in your attempts to help.

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What we can learn about
content from emojis

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See them all at http://www.bustle.com/articles/28803-liza-nelsons-emoji-irllol-images-bring-emojis-to-life-in-all-their-ridiculous-glory

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http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/everyone-emoji-bizarre-and-terrifying-french-mcdonalds-ad-166335

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What does it all mean for your
designs?
brand?
content?
customer experience?
relationships?

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Identity matters
Create content for your customers so that they can
see themselves in you.

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Images are ambiguous
Remember that what you put out
there could be misconstrued or
given new meaning by your
audience . . . and that’s OK.
🍑 🍆

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Emojis can’t replace language
Even the best content can’t replace the conversation between a brand and
its customers.

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Sincerity is key
Know who you are and be
that brand.

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Psst…
Stickers, giphys, icons - they’re all related, but we only have a half hour.

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A few references
Smile, You’re Speaking Emoji: The rapid evolution of a wordless tongue. New
York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/emojis-rapid-
evolution.html
Emoji. Womanzine. https://issuu.com/lindseyweber5/docs/
emoji_by_womanzine
Sexist Emoji? Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast. http://
www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/podcasts/sexist-emoji/

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Want to learn more?
Check out my blog post, “Why you should speak emoji” at http://
www.launchjourney.com/blog/why-you-should-speak-emoji