Emoji

Oh, emoji. How did we ever convey emotion before you?

For content writers, emoji (of which the plural is "emoji", by the way) present a slew of questions. If you're writing for Pixel Union, here are some answers:

When and how do you use them?

In the right context, emoji can help users connect with us. In the wrong context, they can make us look flippant and amateurish. One of the best places to use emoji is on social media, where they're great for grabbing attention and jazzing up posts. People are used to seeing kissy-faces on Twitter and Instagram, so unless you're using more emoji than words, you're probably good to go. Elsewhere, exercise a little more restraint. You can use emoji to add humour and visual interest to your writing, but be deliberate and discriminating. Don't pepper your content with emoji because you think it looks cool. (It doesn't.) Avoid using emoji in serious or sensitive situations. For example, in a message delivering bad news to a customer, adding a frownie is more likely to annoy than smooth things over. 🤦‍♀️

Do they count as punctuation or should you punctuate around them?

Emoji generally end sentences. And while it might seem intuitive to punctuate after the emoji, we think that looks awkward 😧. (< Yuck!)

Instead, punctuate before the emoji. The exception would be if you're writing something quick or casual like a tweet or an Instagram caption, in which case you can go rogue and drop the punctuation altogether. After all, emoji are made of punctuation. 😉

Do they replace words?

🙅‍♀️(No.) Emoji are meant to add emphasis to words, not replace them.

That said, you can probably get away with something like "We ♥️ dogs" in a casual comment. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade century, you know that a heart symbol means "love."