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World Emoji Day : Humanizing Business Communication in a Digital Age

Did you know using emojis improves business results!

We celebrate World Emoji Day today – July 17.

The first emoji was created in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita, a Japanese designer working for the mobile communications company NTT DoCoMo. He created emojis to make digital communication more expressive and intuitive. He designed a set of 176 pixelated icons—each just 12×12 pixels. Since then, Emojis have now evolved.

Shigetaka Kurita (Source:CNN)

Have you ever wondered the role of Emoji in humanizing business communications in this digital age?

In a landscape dominated by metrics, data dashboards, and ROI spreadsheets, the humble emoji now plays a prominent role in the world of B2B messaging. What began as a millennial shorthand has quietly evolved into a strategic tool for client-centric growth professionals, seeking to infuse humanity, clarity, and nuance into their communications.

The Shift: From Formal to Feelings

B2B messaging has long been formal, brimming with jargons, and dense proposal decks. But today’s millennial client is increasingly digital, discerning, and emotionally attuned. As a result, Emojis are now a shorthand for tone, intention, and empathy. A simple or can soften the tone, signal positivity, or break the monotony of corporate dialogue.

This shift isn’t about being casual or cool, it’s about being emotionally intelligent.

Emojis also save time!

The Emoji Business Impact

Do Emoji’s really make any difference when it comes to business results?

  • Emojis function like punctuation with personality. They clarify sentiment, flag urgency, reducing ambiguity in communication.
  • Studies show that emails and social posts with relevant emojis often outperform their plain-text counterparts in open rates and click-throughs rates. For example,
    • Email open rates increase by up to 29% when emojis are used in subject lines.
    • Social media posts with emojis see 25% to 60% more engagement on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
    • Push notifications with emojis are opened 85% more often than those without

Tips for Usage

  • Use sparingly for impact — avoid overloading messages.
  • Match tone to context: What feels engaging in a Slack ping may feel off in a proposal.
  • Emojis can humanize insights: try summarizing performance with 3 emojis.
  • Keep cultural sensitivity in mind — meanings vary globally.
  • A/B Test Subject lines with emojis to evaluate impact.
  • Create Brand Emoji Guidelines to ensure consistency across departments and regions.

Using Emojis across Platforms

Emails (Outlook, Gmail, etc.)

Windows Emoji Picker

  • Shortcut: Press Windows + . (period) or Windows + ; (semicolon)
  • Works in Outlook, Gmail (browser), and most text fields
  • Lets you search and insert emojis instantly

Outlook Add-ins

  • Go to Home > Get Add-ins
  • Search for “Emoji” and install add-ins like Emoji Keyboard or EmojiOne
  • Adds a toolbar for quick emoji access 43dcd9a7-70db-4a1f-b0ae-981daa16205 Click Here

Excel

Keyboard Shortcut

Insert as Image

  • Use Insert > Pictures to add emoji images
  • Or use the IMAGE() function with emoji URLs:

=IMAGE(“https://emoji.beeimg.com//64/twitter”)

PowerPoint

Insert Tab

Symbol Dialog

Cool Emoji Ideas to implement

Emoji-as-KPI Experiment

  • Sum up last quarter’s performance using just 3 emojis
  • Use this to open dialogue around storytelling with dashboards. Invite your team to share their emoji KPIs!

Build Your B2B Mood Board

  • Use emoji palettes to enrich communication internally and externally.
  • Conduct Emoji usage training programs
  • Conduct surveys with emojis instead of rating scales
  • Use emojis to give feedback after reviews
  • Capture employee sentiments with emojis
  • Have employees identify themselves with a emoji persona

As B2B grows more human-centric, the rise of emojis signals an evolution — not a dilution — of professional communication. These tiny symbols remind us that behind every metric is a person. And in a noisy world, sometimes all it takes is a to spark a meaningful connection.

Nilakantasrinivasan J

Nilakantasrinivasan J (Neil) (born 1974) is an Indian author, consultant and guide, focused on the subject of client centricity, B2B client centric business growth, business transformation & analytics. Nilakantasrinivasan J (Neil) is the author of 3 books, The Client Centric Protagonist, The Master Book for Lean Six Sigma & A Little Book for Customer Experience.

#nilakantasrinivasan-j #canopus-business-management-group #B2B-client-centric-growth #Emoji-Day #Shigetaka-Kurita #NTT-DoCoMo

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