Over the past few years, emoji have become a common mode of communication over social media. But will using emoji in your engagement benefit your business?

Many businesses have seen emoji’s potential, and have begun implementing the animated icons into their branding strategies. Others regard emoji as unprofessional, and disdain using them entirely. Regardless of whether emoji is professional or not, they have become wildly popular—Facebook has even unveiled “Reactions,” a palate of emoji that users can use to react to posts. Companies must consider the potential benefits they offer.

Firstly, emoji make posts easier to understand. The human brain can process visual images much faster than just plain text. In the mobile world, conveying a message quickly is of paramount importance—emoji captures an innumerable number of words in character. Furthermore, emoji adds personality to a post, which raises the chance that your followers will stop to look at it.

Emoji can also be used as a call to action or to champion a cause. For example, companies have used various emoji to champion humanitarian causes. In a similar vein, Domino’s Pizza used the pizza emoji on Twitter so that customers could easily order pizza with just a tweet:

Emoji, along with video, mark social media’s quickening evolution toward a completely visual media. People no longer have time for words, but companies still need to reach them. Emoji offer an expedient solution.

See Social Media Today for more.