Best Practices for Using Emojis on Instagram

If you spend much time on Instagram, you’ve noticed that emojis are hot right now. Individuals, influencers, and brands use them when posting and communicating with followers. Learn the best practices for using emojis on Instagram before you adopt the trend. Then, you will use them in a way that engages your audience and expands your reach.
 

Keep Accessibility in Mind

People with vision impairment use assistive technology for Instagram. Make sure you use emojis in a way that those with visual impairments can still understand your message. Otherwise, you will alienate a portion of your audience. 

First, don’t go overboard with emojis. When screen readers come across lines of emojis, they turn them into long, strange sentences. You don’t want visually impaired people to be treated to sentences like, “Heart, crying, mad, thumbs up, rabbit, dog, money.” That won’t make any sense. By using emojis sparingly, you can connect with your entire audience. 

Also, use emojipedia.org to check the descriptions for the emojis you use. If a description doesn’t make sense, take it out of your rotation. That way, you won’t confuse people who are visually impaired. Instead, their assistive technologies will clearly communicate the meaning behind the emoji. 

Emoji placement is also vital when appealing to visually impaired individuals. If you put too many emojis at the top or middle of your caption, visually impaired people might have trouble understanding the meaning of your post. Save most of your emojis for the end of the caption, so everyone can understand the message. 
 

Add an Emoji or Two to Your Bio

While you don’t want to overdo it, adding one or two emojis can make your Instagram bio stand out. You’ll notice that many of the top brands do this. Take Nike, for instance. If you go to its Instagram page, you’ll see that its bio contains a sneaker emoji. If there is an emoji that fits your brand, you can use it in your bio. Then, people will associate it with your brand. Take it a step further and use that emoji in some of your posts to strengthen the connection. 
 

Use Emojis for Each Line of Your Bio

If you have more than one or two emojis that fit your brand, consider using a new one for each line of your bio. The Doug the Pug Instagram page is a great example of this. The page’s owner uses a new emoji for each line. The emojis make the lines stand out, so you are more likely to read the entire bio. You can use the same strategy on your bio.
 

Use Emojis for CTAs

You want to draw people’s attention to your CTAs. That’s easier to do when you use emojis. Place emojis next to your CTAs, so people’s eyes naturally travel there. Then, they are more likely to take the desired action. Test different emojis to find out what gets the best results for your customer base. Don’t stop testing just because you find something that works, though. Continue to test your best-performing emojis against others, so you can constantly improve. 
 

Increase Engagement By Asking Followers to Respond With Emojis

A high engagement rate is likely one of your goals on Instagram. You can get that much closer to achieving it by asking people to comment with emojis. This is a fun and easy way to increase engagement rates. You can provide them with a series of emojis for each response, and then they can pick the right one. You can also ask them to drop an emoji that describes how they are feeling or what they think about a piece of information. Along with increasing engagement, you can also learn quite a bit about your audience when you do this.
 

Don’t Use Emojis Just to Use Them

You’ve probably come across this more than once on Instagram. Some users put emojis into posts just for the sake of adding emojis. The emojis don’t do anything to enhance the post, and they are not communicating a message. They probably think that using emojis will cause people to take a second look. That might be true, but when people take that look, they often think the post is spammy. Give some thought to when and where to use emojis. If the emojis don’t fit, take them out.
 

Keep Your Brand in Mind

You also need to keep your brand in mind when selecting and using emojis. Don’t choose emojis that will harm your brand’s image or offend your audience. When in doubt, leave the emojis out.
 

Reply With Emojis

You should reply to comments as much as possible. Use emojis when replying to make the conversation feel like texting with friends. Your followers will enjoy the personal touch that emojis provide. This will make you appear more authentic, so they will feel closer to your page. This is vital if you want to have a highly engaged audience. 
 

Make Sure People See Your Emojis

After you practice for a bit, you’ll improve your emoji game and want to maximize your exposure. This can be hard to do because of Instagram’s algorithm. If your posts don’t receive much engagement, Instagram will bury them at the end of the search results. They might not even display your posts to your followers. Consider buying Instagram likes to increase engagement on your best posts. Then, you will enjoy the snowball effect that occurs when you have a post with high engagement levels. Others will see your posts, and before long, you will have a considerable following. The following will be engaged thanks to your emojis.
 

Start Practicing With Emojis Today

Now that you know the best practices, you’re ready to start using emojis. Even with the best practices in mind, it can take some work. After a few days, though, you should be on point with your emoji use. Then, you can take the next step and buy Instagram likes to increase your organic reach.

For more ideas on how to grow your Instagram presence, check out this article.