by Ken Whittaker, Front Rush
I have a confession to make. I used to think emojis were useless. I didn’t get the point. When I made the switch from Android to iPhone (gasp!) in 2011, emojis were just gaining popularity. Some of you might remember that to even enable emojis on the iPhone, you had to go to the keyboard settings and add the specific emoji keyboard (the horror!). A friend of mine stopped by my dorm room one day, and must have noticed I was still typing emojis the “original” way 🙂 She said something like, “You gotta get emojis” before leaving. “Nah,” I thought to myself, “it’s faster to type the symbols.” Fast forward five years, and ?.
Now, if you don’t know what emojis are – you’re probably very confused. In short, they are cartoon like representation of emotions, images, shapes, food…and just about anything. It’s not a new concept – but neither is Season 32 of Survivor. Everywhere you look – emojis have popped up. Just last week my auto insurance company sent me a statement reminder and had a dollar bill emoji in the subject line. This naturally begs the question – are emojis professional? I wouldn’t venture that far – but when used in the right context – they can be a great tool. They’re funny and can often summarize a feeling that might otherwise be too awkward to type out in words ?.
At Front Rush, we use an instant message client to communicate as a team, which is especially convenient considering many of us work across the country. It’s no secret that emojis are a huge part of our day to day interactions – whether they are for fun, to drive a point home, give props for a job well done, or even help to take lunch orders ?. There is no question that your recruits and players use emojis. I’d be willing to guess most of you also use them as well. Here are a few ways you can use emojis in your day to day recruiting methods:
Break the Ice ⚒
Using emojis when communicating with recruits lets them know you’re a fun person (I know you are) – someone that’s not just all about business. It gives a message more of a personality and could even help with some confusion. For example, “I saw your video from last weekend’s tournament” vs “I saw your video from last weekend’s tournament ?” Subtle, but it definitely sends positive vibes their way. The best (worst?) part is there’s no limit to how many you can use, however…
Don’t Go Overboard ?
Some people like to string multiple emojis together to create a sentence. Honestly, I never really saw the point in this. I think of emojis as helpers, not complete replacements for entire words in a paragraph. It’s possible this mentality might change in the near future, as Apple has announced a feature coming in the next version of iOS that will allow users to tap on a word and replace it with an emoji. ??(That’s emoji for, “Hmm, ok. Got it.”)
International ?
If the situation arises where you’re still brushing up on your foreign language skills, emojis can help you in a bind. As I mentioned earlier, emojis can represent just about anything – including emotions. It’s like tech slang, so the more you can pull from your existing emojicabulary, the safer you’ll be.
Familiarize Yourself ?
Ok, so maybe I haven’t sold you yet. Maybe you’re still acting like the 2011 version of me who was a holdout. The truth is, emojis are just such a common part of texting, instant messaging, and even emailing, that there’s no doubt you’ll come across them if you haven’t already. Emojis are continually being added to the universal library (in fact, 72 new emojis were released last month), so it’s important to know what they are and what some of them mean. This resource (http://emojipedia.org) will help you get started.