Gifs are more than just cute cats…
Gifs are a whole new way (I say new but they have been around since the late 80’s) for brands to express themselves. They’re easy to consume, and a great way to convey tone, humour and personality!
After you’ve finished arguing over whether I’m saying gif with a hard G or a soft one (hard btw) we’ll get into how they can make your content stand out in the newsfeed.
If you don’t want to write a paragraph to describe what you mean, a gif is the perfect tool. But it all comes down to context. When brands use gifs literally, that’s when they tend to fail. For example, let’s say your brand talks about sleeping through your alarm.
You could post a gif like this:
But that doesn’t say anything about you, your brand or anything that your copy doesn’t.
In fact, something like this isn’t as literal, shows a whole lot more personality and emotion – and in this context makes perfect sense.
Once you’ve understood the type of content to post, it’s only a matter of posting!
Posting Gifs on Facebook
So you have your gif ready to go on your desktop, you’ve been trying to upload it like a photo or video, because hey, a gif is just a short looping video, and… no dice 🙁
That’s because Facebook doesn’t allow you to upload gifs directly so you might find your gifs posting as a still photo with this method. Think of it more like posting a link instead.
All you need to do is copy the link of the gif and paste it in, just like you were posting an article.
In the same way, you would for an article, simply delete the link once it’s loaded and write in your caption.
It’s that easy!
If you’ve created your own gif, you need to find somewhere to host it online to create a link for it. I use Giphy, it has a great library to choose from and uploading your own is super easy.
Now adding gifs to comments on Facebook will be even easier. In the same way that you can add a gif to your messenger conversation, comments will have a gif button with all the gifs you could desire right at your fingertips! If you don’t have this feature yet it’s coming!
Posting Gifs on Instagram
This is where you’ll see why Giphy works so well. There is an app for iOS and Android so you can search and post gifs straight to Instagram.
Once you’ve found a gif you love, tap it and expand your sharing options. Hit the Instagram icon to download it to your app, You will then be prompted to open Instagram and finish your post as per normal.
Alternatively, if you want to make gifs on the fly, you can use Boomerang within Instagram. Boomerang takes 10 quick snaps and stitches them together into a 1 second video loop that you can post then and there!
Posting Gifs on Twitter
What do you do when you only have 140 characters but a lot more to say? Add a gif!
Twitter is the most advanced gif posting platform around all things to the addition of one little thing… a gif button!
Powered by Riffsy and Giphy, you are provided with a library of gifs to search through to spice up your tweets.
Whether you’re on your phone or desktop, it’s exactly the same process. Compose your tweet and hit the gif button right next to the image button and search for the perfect gif!
Gif it your all!
Used thoughtfully, gifs can provide brands with a new way to show personality and relate to their audience so don’t hesitate to incorporate them into your social strategy! It’s about being social after all.
Do you have a favourite gif? Let us know how you use them.