How do you do the smileys?

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I see everywhere discussions where people are using smileys to improve their responses. Sometimes they fit perfectly and sometimes they are a bit too many and too excessive, but still they most of the time brings the response to live! In one discussion I think I even read that you can increase your earnings if you use smileys, but I do not know if that is the case. Either way, I am using the keyboard symbols for the smileys, like :), ;) etc but they do not change into smileys when I post. So all I want to know really is how do you make the smileys to be real smileys, both still ones and the animated ones. Someone, please enlighten me!