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Creating History Through an Emoji

Published on September 16, 2016, at 8:28 a.m.
by Brittany Ray.

Social media and sports enthusiasts unite! The time to live-tweet football games and generate engagement is at an absolute high.

Twitter and football just took their relationship to a new level. In honor of the season kickoff, the National Football League (NFL) released a new line of hashtags accompanied with custom emojis. If that wasn’t enough, the hashtag and emoji duo can be tweeted out as you watch the football game from Twitter.

Photo By Silly git200
Photo By Silly git200

The way it works: fans send out their tweets with the designated hashtag for their respective football teams. And just like that, the emoji will appear. The list of hashtags released includes #BeRedSeeRed (Cardinals), #Patriots (for guess who) and #Skol (Vikings), to name a few.

The new social media implementation comes not long after the announcement of Twitter and the NFL’s newfound partnership. Twitter has agreed to live-stream 10 NFL games this season, worldwide. The pairing of the two presences will entice avid tweeters to explore the new tools available.

The official schedule was released, announcing what games will be live-streamed. The New York Jets, or #JetUp, quickly took to Twitter to announce the historical moment. The Jets play the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 15, 2016, for the first-ever, live-streamed football game on Twitter.

twitter worldwideThe NFL isn’t the first party to take on this trendy hashtag/emoji idea. YouTuber Zoe Sugg, or Zoella, worked with her personal team to develop a Zoella emoji to announce the release of her third book, #GirlOnlineGoingSolo. Current figures and relevant organizations are taking advantage of this new social media tool.

As a social media advocate and future public relations professional, I am excited to witness new engagement ideas being executed. This implementation humanizes the NFL. Instead of acting as a standard organization on Twitter, the league will now serve as an example. The NFL was able to make groundbreaking news and create history by simply pairing with a social media platform.

No longer are the teams’ fans simply united at games or tailgates. Now, fans can easily find their football communities online by searching teams’ hashtags. The partnership between the NFL and Twitter has created an opportunity for a new community dynamic. Social media is yet again bringing people together in an unconventional way.

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