As predicted in WebDAM‘s 20 statistics that would be the driving force of marketing strategies in 2014, visual sharing networks continue to be on the rise. But does this mean that we are moving into a post-text era? One sign that might have people saying “yes” is the revolution of emojis.

What is an emoji?

An emoji can simply be explained as a pictographic symbol. For example, this little guy to the left.
Basically, emojis are a new [fun] way of conveying emotion through teeny-tiny pictures.

How people are using emojis

Let’s say you’re stuck at work, you have plans to meet a friend for a night out, and 5 o’clock can’t come soon enough. Your conversation through emojis might look something like the emojis to the right.

Some not-so-boring statistics

-Visual content is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text
-65% of people are visual learners (via socialmediatoday.com)
With more than half the population identifying as visual learners, it’s no wonder we are moving toward a newer way of having conversations.

So, are we really moving into a post-text era?

Not just yet. When looking at traditional blogging, Laurent Francois (co-founder of the RE-UP agency) says:
“… most of the conversations are not about expressing an opinion: it can be sharing an emotion, laughing, sympathizing etc – human attributes which can be difficult to express with traditional text … But with emojis, there’s a new field for human emotions to express their emotions … It does not mean that text is dead – it means that we’re going to experience new ways to spread ideas.”

What does this mean for me as a business owner?

As of right now, being “in the know” about online & technology trends are what is most important. While only a small number of businesses are currently using emojis for things like text messaging campaigns, this could change quickly as technology continues to progress at a rapid speed.

With 2,800+ current emojis, 250 new emojis were recently added in the month of June, allowing people around the world to convey even more emotion than ever-before. Here is a link to one of the most recently designed apps making emojis available on all operating systems. getemoji.com.

The most used emojis
–On Twitter
-In general