Are you using the right emojis for your author brand? Could they help or hurt your author’s reputation, especially when building an author platform?
Let’s find out…
CAN EMOJIS HELP OR HURT YOUR AUTHOR BRAND?
I’m blogging about building an author platform for The Author Platform (Did you just laugh?) and I’ve been fine-tuning our author brand. I was batching some posts and went to use an emoji when I paused…
Was I using the right emojis for my author brand?
How many ways can an emoji be interpreted?
Would my author brand’s message get lost?
And many more… So, I decided to take a closer look at the power of the emoji.
WHAT IS AN EMOJI?
An emoji is a simplified animated icon or image that can help to show a mood, place, food, animal, or to describe an identity by replacing the use of words.
To quote Fred R Banard “…a picture is worth more than a thousand words…”, in this case, one smiley face can lighten up a sentence that could be read in so many ways.
Have you considered the use of Emojis for your author brand? Share on X
WHERE DID THE EMOJI COME FROM?
In 1998 an engineer, working at a Japanese phone company, was playing with ideas on how to communicate through icons. Mr Kurita created the first 176 emojis, claiming his inspiration had come from a blend of Manga characters and international bathroom signs.
The power of the loo—who knew!
WHAT DOES THE WORD EMOJI WORD COME FROM?
The word emoji comes from the combined Japanese words:
The “E” is for picture + “Moji” is for character = Emoji
HERE ARE SOME RANDOM THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE EMOJI:
To really impress people at your next cocktail party, did you know that:
😂 the most used emoji is the laugh-cry emoji.
🔶 That there are over 3,600 emojis in existence.
🔶 Over 5 billion emojis are being used daily as a convenient and yet artistic form of expression on social media.
🔶Emojis have become so popular that July 17 is National Emoji Day.
🔶The Emojis have their own movie called The Emojis Movie. Catchy title, huh.
🔶 Unicode is the system that helps keep emojis consistent across different platforms, like apple to android phones.
🔶 The Unicode Consortium is a group of people who come from all over the planet to vote on emoji designs while trying to decipher the many meanings of an eggplant. 🍆
THE SHOCKING EMOJIS THAT WERE BANNED!
I wonder if the Emojis makers should invite Twitter’s top100 sassiest comics to their meetings, as I’m sure these people have, and will continue to, reinvent the meaning of emojis, such as…
Did you know using 🟧 ⬛ can get you into trouble as it’s a reference to the adult-site P*rn Hub, it was used so widely they censored this symbol combination on TikTok.
They banned the combined use of the 🍆 eggplant and the peach 🍑 emojis on Twitter, Facebook, etc for their possible “… sexual expression on the social media platforms.”
Who knew the humble fruit could be so naughty?
Should the Emojis makers invite Twitter's top100 sassiest comics to their meetings, as I’m sure these people have, and will continue to, reinvent the meaning of emojis… Share on X
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS THE WRONG OR RIGHT EMOJIS FOR YOUR AUTHOR BRAND?
Well, besides never ever using eggplants and peaches together in a tweet, unless you write erotica, go for it. But as I write and research deeper for this post, I had to wonder…
Haven’t you ever received a message purely written out of emojis and wondered what planet did this come from? And how much alcohol was involved with that last text message? Hands up if you’re guilty of this—we’re all friends here.
The best place to find the meaning of these teeny-tiny icons is to visit the emoji encyclopedia. There are a few to choose from.
The most reputable sites include all of the Unicode versions and their meanings for every emoji. For example, you’d be surprised how different the octopus is. 🐙 It’s maroon or purple on some screens, orange, or even green on other devices. And that’s just one emoji.
SELECTING THE RIGHT EMOJIS FOR YOUR AUTHOR BRAND
As I’m working on nailing down the author brand for the Author Platform, I decided to go through an entire online encyclopedia (because that’s what authors do – we procrastinate in such clever ways) to find the orange coloured emojis! Orange is our jam, man.
🙄Aaand this is the rolling eyes emoji in case you needed one!
So we started a process of elimination. First by colour and then we went through various online emoji dictionaries to find their meanings.
What follows are the results broken down into groups. See if you think their meanings match your interpretations.
because that's what authors do – we procrastinate in such clever ways… Share on X
ORANGE OBJECT EMOJIS:
🧱 🧱 🧱 The brick emoji is for building, or for being considered extremely cold. On different smartphone devices it can be a brick wall or just a single brick and the colours change from orange, red, to yellow.
⏰ ⏰ ⏰The alarm clock emoji is for alarm, time, countdown, alerts, even concern. How alarming! 🙃 (This is the emoji for being silly, in case you were wondering.)
🧡🧡🧡 The orange heart emoji has all of the positive vibes that come with being a good friend – joy, happiness, creativity, encouragement and sunshine. Aww, no wonder we like orange so much.
📙 📙 📙The orange book is a hardcover book to symbolise either a closed book or to show you are reading.
ORANGE TOOL EMOJIS:
📝 📝 📝the pen and paper are for writing, send a memo, make a note, taking notes.
🪃 🪃 🪃this is the boomerang emoji. As an Aussie who lives in the outback, the boomerang is a hunting weapon used to knock things out from the back of the head like a knife in the back. Its emoji meaning is what you throw out there it’ll come back.
🚁 🚁 🚁 helicopter is for transport and to hover. *Hi, Mum*
🧹 🧹 🧹 The broom emoji is to sweep, or for witches to rise above the peak hour trick-or-treat traffic on Halloween.
ORANGE ANIMALS EMOJIS:
🦊 🦊 🦊The Fox emoji, well that’s for a cunning wily fox, or just a foxy fox. You tell me.
🐯 🐯 🐯 Tiger Emoji. Again, it could be a sign of affection towards that tiger in your life, or for someone who is ferociously angry with you. Or, it could be, ‘Don’t mess with me,’ or ‘I’ve got this.’ It’s also used for football and other sporting groups, and the Chinese Tiger Zodiac…
ORAANGE FRUIT, FOOD & FLOWER EMOJIS:
🏵️ 🏵️ 🏵️This is the Rosette Emoji. I thought this one was an orange flower, like the daisy. It turns out it’s a rosette used for decorating military awards or for ceremonial ribbons. But it’s mostly used as a flower to decorate things on Mother’s Day.
🍊 🍊 🍊 this is a tangerine, that is not to be confused with a peach. It’s a type of mandarin that is sweet and sour. Some use this as a term for a lesbian, and it’s also linked to summer and oranges.
🥕 🥕 🥕 The Carrot symbolises gardening, organic food, and a healthy lifestyle.
🍕 🍕 🍕 the pizza emoji – everyone knows it’s pizza for dinner. But do you think I can find one for a taco?
🍛 🍛 🍛 but I did find curry rice.
ORANGE SPORTS EMOJIS:
🏋️ 🏋️ 🏋️The strong man here is for weights or for those saying, “I’m going to the gym.”
🧘 🧘 🧘 This is a woman in a yoga pose. Yeah, I can see the Twitter comics having fun with this one. Remember what they did with yoga pants!
🏀 🏀 🏀Basketball and NBA
OUTDOORS EMOJIS WITH ORANGE IN THEM:
🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ the Desert is used for when you’re cactus or exhausted, desolate, lost in the desert. And I just thought it was desert, high noon.
🌄 🌄 🌄 Sunrise over mountains is for the morning, outdoors, sunshine, fresh air, and or mountain climbing.
ORANGE COLOURED SYMBOL EMOJIS:
🔥 🔥 🔥 The Flame Emoji is for all things to do with fire and temperature heat. It’s also used to describe a person’s temper, their looks, or if they’re lit! Oh, and Guy Fawkes Day.
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ This is for high voltage, zap, lightning bolt, and as a sign for extreme speed or excellence.
ORANGE COLOURED SHAPE EMOJIS:
🟠 🟠 🟠 the orange circle emoji claims to emit warm feelings, to symbolize youth and the energy of the colour orange. Nice. All that from one spot. 🧡
🟧 🟧 🟧similar to the orange circle’s meanings, these orange squares are used at end of sentences or to talk about the colour orange, like 🟧👗for an orange dress.
🔶 🔶 🔶 the orange diamond again represents the colour in speech and, like the…
🔸 🔸 🔸llittle diamonds are used mostly for decorations.
SO WHAT ARE THE RIGHT EMOJIS FOR YOUR AUTHOR BRAND?
That depends on the type of content and context you want to use them, who you want to attract, and who your readers are.
Making use of emojis for your author brand is entirely up to you.
Look at the colour and images found in the emoji catalogues to find what would suit your author brand.
For those emojis you do find, copy and paste them into our FREE Author’s Master List. By having all of your favourite emojis in one place, ready to copy + paste saves you time scrolling through the list, especially when you want to quickly respond to a comment on Instagram or a Facebook message. Emojis can really help to make your social media feeds pop, and are used more when it comes to Instagram posts.
I also use an emoji in the title of our newsletters to help them stand out among that scrolling stream of endless emails our readers get almost daily. Try it, you’ll see the difference in your own author newsletters.
Don’t stop there, why not create your own language with the emoji images. Try putting a few together to describe a character. Get your readers involved and turn it into a competition. You can have a lot of fun with them.
But do consider them as another tool that authors can use when building their author platform.
Enjoy. Xx
🧡 👑 (Oh, this is means: With love from the Desk Duchess.)
