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![\"635727280223605030-635641070994766226-AP-Apple-Diversifying-Emoji\"](\"http:\/\/www.make-it-rain.co.uk\/wpe-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/635727280223605030-635641070994766226-AP-Apple-Diversifying-Emoji.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re down with the kids, you\u2019ll know that Twitter has been a fan of emojis for quite some time. This became clearly apparent last year when it controversially switched its \u2018favourite\u2019 symbol from a star to a heart: one of the most popular emojis used across Twitter. Last week, just prior to today\u2019s World Emoji Day (yes, it really is \u2018a thing\u2019!), Twitter announced emoji-based keyword targeting for Twitter ads. <\/p>\n
Without doubt, emoji use has exploded over the past year or two. Everyone seems to be using them, to the point where the word \u2018emoji\u2019 was named \u2018Word of the Year\u2019 in 2015 by the Oxford Dictionary. Over\u00a0110 billion emojis\u00a0have been tweeted since 2014, and last year they accounted for nearly half of all text on\u00a0photo sharing platform Instagram. A study last year<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Emogi<\/a>\u00a0found that 92% of online consumers use emoji in some capacity. \u201cOn Instagram, emoji are becoming a valid and near-universal method of expression in all languages,\u201d says Thomas Dimson, a software engineer on the Instagram Data Team. In the same way that SMS speak took off, emojis have become shorthand for how we feel, or what we\u2019re thinking. They\u2019re fun, quick and easy to use, work well within the 140 character limit on Twitter, and cut through most cultural and language barriers. Emojis are mobile-based too, and so their rise in popularity is most likely attributable to the growth in smartphone ownership and usage. Twitter isn\u2019t the first to get excited about the new sort of data emoji marketing presents, and we\u2019ve seen some well-known brands experiment with their use already. Marketers are continually looking for new ways to connect with their target audiences, in a personalised way, based on what they know about them. While there\u2019s little evidence to prove it yet, emojis could potentially reflect a new form of customer data relating to purchase intent and sentiment. It could also give marketers insight into their emotional reaction to product launches, world events, topics in the news etc. Coca-Cola\u00a0was quick to join in the emoji trend. Its\u00a0#ShareaCoke<\/a>\u00a0Twitter emoji aimed to create a world record around the largest \u2018cheers\u2019. This campaign became a vital trending topic with celebrities, brands, and consumers around the world all joining in. GE last year developed an emoji \u201cperiodic table of experiments,\u201d which it called Emoji Science, and got well-known US scientists in on the act. \u00a0 And Domino\u2019s scooped the Cannes Lions Titanium Grand Prix award last summer for most breakthrough idea of the year, involving its creative use of emojis. The pizza chain developed a way to let existing customers place simple orders via text messaging, using emojis. Five hundred people tried out the service on its first day of launch, and as one might expect, it generated a flurry of media attention.<\/p>\n![\"Twitter_2010_logo_-_from_Commons.svg\"](\"http:\/\/www.make-it-rain.co.uk\/wpe-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Twitter_2010_logo_-_from_Commons.svg_.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\nA new type of data<\/strong><\/h2>\n