What is Emoticon

Definition:

An emoticon or emoticon is a digital expression that reflects an expression of the face with the aim of alluding to a state of mind. They can be sent both through social networks, such as instant messaging, email…

What is the origin of the emoticon?

The word emoticon comes from the English word emoticon, which is the result of uniting the word emotion (translated “emotion”) and the word icon (i.e. “icon”). The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) includes the concept as an emoticon.

The first emoticons were created through a series of ASCII characters, representing faces of people, usually smiling. With the passage of time, multiple emoticons with different meanings emerged.

The use of colon, a hyphen and a closing parenthesis allow to create the emoticon of a smiling face. In some places the signs are automatically replaced by an image.

What are emoticons for?

Emoticons have several uses. Among which we can highlight:

• To shorten messages
• Convey emotions. I do not know if you are happy or sad but with the use of the emoticon you can understand.

Use, however, should be relegated to informal settings. It is very normal to use between friends instead of words.

Why include emoticons in the Social Media strategy?

Emoticons are an element that attracts everyone. All this due to their fun character and that animate any message. In addition, they help to improve understanding and comprehension time, just by looking at it.

Emoticons can be an option, more than successful, for the communication of any company:

• Immediacy and speed: They are immediate. Emoticons allow us to make a quick and coherent response in a couple of seconds.
• A better communicative understanding. It serves both to complement the information and to give emphasis. Some studies confirm that the brain responds similarly to emoticons as to a human facial expression.
• It generates greater familiarity. It manages to present a greater closeness. The messages are usually seen as somewhat cold, not being able to look at the gestures of the interlocutor.
• They are fun and brighten up conversations.