Emoji use as a self-branding strategy in male and female Arab influencers’ Instagram bios: a corpus linguistic study

This study explores the use of emojis in Instagram bios as a self-branding strategy among male and female social media influencers. The study examined two corpora comprising 2,184 bios in total, equally split between male and female (1,092 each). The analysis classified the emojis most frequently used in the two gendered corpora according to their categories and functions using corpus-assisted tools. The results confirmed the use of emojis as a valid element in bios to serve multiple purposes. Female influencers emphasized their femininity in their choice of emojis under certain categories, such as Animal & Nature Cartoon-style illustration of a pink five-petal flower with a yellow center, a single green leaf, and a curved black stem outlined in bold lines., whereas male influencers emphasized power in their use of emojis under the category of People & Body Yellow cartoon-style hand icon with an extended index finger pointing downward, outlined in black, against a white background.. While most emoji sequences in the female corpus presented the combined function of Concept and Stance, the most prominent function of emoji sequences in the male corpus was Concept and Action. The study shows that emojis and emoji sequences play an important role as a self-branding strategy in influencers’ bios in a creative and interesting manner.