Valentine’s Day is alive and well with social media allowing people worldwide to declare their love in the most public of fashions.
QUT Creative Advertising lecturer Michael Klaehn said the word ‘love’ was tweeted more than 2.5 billion times in the past year and today it will be the hottest word on the Twitterscape, most likely paired with one of the top 10 global love Emojis or hashtags.
“Twitter has just released its global top ten love Emojis and hashtags which demonstrate the incredible impact social media is having on the worldwide romance industry and how people communicate,” Mr Klaehn said.
“The number one love Emoji is the face with love hearts for eyes, followed by a red heart, then two hearts, a face blowing a kiss and a vibrating heart to round out the top five. Number 10 is a broken heart.
“The top hashtag is not surprisingly #Love, followed by #Blessed. #ValentinesDay comes in at number four and number 10 is the slightly pleading-sounding #LetMeLoveYou.
“At the same time marketers are trying to capitalize on Valentine’s Day via social media campaigns. Air New Zealand has run quirky Valentine’s Day campaigns for the past few years and the latest asks people Are you #GoingTheDistance this Valentine’s Day?
“Some campaigns are a little strange but still entertaining; like the Snuggle Bear campaign which lets people upload their own photos and send to their Valentine.
“Social media is now so mainstream in terms of communication that it will be very popular today for people to declare their love for their partners using Twitter, Facebook, other social media, virtual cards, and automated videos like the Snuggle Bear singing "I had the time of my life”.
“The ability to use multimedia so easily and to send it to your special Valentine via the internet anywhere in the world makes it extremely appealing.”
Media contact:
Amanda Weaver, QUT Media, 07 3138 9449, amanda.weaver@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
