Using Emojis to stand out in listing titles?

[toyetictoys]

Hey all,

Has ebay's policy on emoji use changed recently?  I keep seeing several sellers using different types of emojis in their listing titles.  Emojis definitely catch my attention when I'm scrolling through ebay's search results.  I've never used them on my own listings because I always thought it was against ebay policy.

Does anyone know if it's still against policy or is it acceptable now? 

[richard1rst]

Ask yourself this - how many people do a search for an emoji?

There was a time when many sellers used things like *LOOK* and other nonsensical words in the title.

And if I am scanning a list of results for a specific product I ignore the emojis. (In fact I consider them to be the mark of an inexperienced seller who, all other things being equal, will probably NOT get my order). You are better off to use the space to include a model number, a feature, or some USEFUL piece of information.

Don't mean to rain on your parade but you did ask for advice.

[emerald1830]

I usually skip buying from sellers using emojis...something about it annoys me, I will never forget on FB someone announcing their father died and then a slew of emojis..UGH!

Richard had great points...all true...

[fuzzface50]

i am still under the impression that only numbers and letters should be used in titles. You can use other characters if you want but it used to lower you in search, not sure if it still does or not though. 

Add me to the group that avoid sellers that use emoji's or cute or look in titles. I want actual facts in titles, cannot get actual facts in title I don't want to see what other **bleep** they put in the listing.  Nothing like using a blue flashing light to send me away. I can remember a store with a blue light, wonder what happened to them?  

[toyetictoys]

Thanks for the advice. 

Yeah, I've never used emojis myself, but I was scrolling through some searches today and they really did make those listings pop ... whether that's a good thing or not I don't know.  5+ fire emojis is a little excessive, but it got me to stop and click  haha

I'm the same way though - I think relevant search words is the better approach.  I just thought maybe using emojis is a new trend I don't know about.

[eunster1313]

Search and browse manipulation policy

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/search-browse-manipulation-policy?id=4243&st=12&... 

[gwzcomps]

To be a broken record, waste of characters when you could be using searchable terms. I also ignore listings that use emojis or words like "Look" in the title. It may be worth doing if your target audience likes that kind of stuff though.

[krys888]

They made you look, but did you buy? That’s the problem. They’re disruptive, meant to get your attention, but the attention should be to the item, not the emoji. I recently was fired from a project for protesting the use of too many “icons” in marketing materials to “older” demographic. I said, we older folks aren’t into all those icons. I was told, that’s the trend. I asked for data proving it as a trend for our older demographic. Let’s just say it went downhill from there. I lost, of course, lol. But, a lot of us are disgusted at the lack of words used to communicate these days. Words used to matter!

[richard1rst]

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@krys888 wrote:

 Words used to matter!

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Then they went and changed the meaning of the words. Now the young'uns have an entirely different idea of what a word means compared to those of us who received a proper linguistic education.

That creates a difficulty in creating a headline or description that will be read the same by far separated generations.

Chauvinist, decimate, bad, and a whole lot of other words mean entirely different things to different generations. And some words, although seemingly understood, have no meaning whatsoever: "irregardless" for example.

There was a NASCAR driver named Sterling Marlin. I advertised a "pewter key ring NASCAR Sterling Marlin #6". A buyer bought it and claimed fraud because it was not in fact "sterling silver". Lesson learned.

[debsm-6771]

I refuse to buy from a seller who uses emoji. They look childish, and if a seller feel like they can be childish before the sale, how are they going to handle my item? Or if something in the sale goes south?

[krys888]

Yes! That’s why I can’t stand the etsy “watch” hearts ebay has now slapped on ALL listing photos in search! EW! They cheapen the whole item!

[hollysfinds]

So true @richard1rst .

I recently sold a set of melmac dishes.

Silly me, I thought everybody knew what melmac was

I got a snippy message from the buyer telling me that

she didn't realize that the dishes were made of plastic.

Us older folk know what melmac is, but apparently the younger do not.

[krys888]

Omg, those were my first dishes!

[chapeau-noir]

URK - I didn't know what Melmac was, either, but I'd probably have just looked it up lol.

I don't care one way or another about emojis, they don't particularly bother me as I just screen them out, but they not only take up valuable real estate but also disrupt Google search - even though Google may support them in search returns, it's only when they're relevant to that search. It's hard to imagine very many emojis being relevant in a query about a shirt or a pair of pliers, and not considered spam.

[chapeau-noir]

Poshmark is where emojis go to spawn.  Lawdy.