The power of emoji images has increased quite a bit over the past few years. What started as a fad with smiley faces and hearts has grown into a potential business enterprise, whether it’s Star Wars-related images to promote The Force Awakens, or the introduction of new emojis that allow fans to choose a side between Batman or Superman for the upcoming movie, Dawn of Justice.

Emoji use is on the rise when it comes to social media, with more companies utilizing the little images on Facebook and Twitter in 2015 than they did in the previous year, eMarketer reports.

The study, conducted by Socialbakers, shows that 45 percent of top brands worldwide used emojis with their Twitter posts by the end of 2014. That number grew to 59 percent in 2015.

Emoji

The growth wasn’t quite as big on Facebook but still showed an increase, going from 28 percent to 40 percent.

In addition, the study took a closer look at how often users take advantage of the emoji format. The February 2015 study, conducted by AYTM Market Research, shows that 48.9 percent of consumers used emojis in social media, while 51 percent had never used them. Keep in mind that the report is a year old, and numbers could have changed since then, especially when brands like Star Wars or the Academy Awards release emojis that catch on with users.

Emojis

It just goes to show that the power of imagery can go a long way on social media, especially when it’s the adorable shrunken down version of The Force Awakens’ BB-8 droid.

Expect more companies to effectively introduce emojis for social media in the months ahead.