GIFs are just another way to tell your brand’s story and connect with customers. Here’s how to use them
Here at Yakkety Yak, GIFs are just one of our favorite Internet trends. We add them to our monthly newsletters, and our clients’, and sprinkle them into our social media calendars. They’re compact, easy to use and more engaging than an image, but less time-consuming than a video. While the pronunciation may be in dispute forever, we can all agree that GIFs are a fun way to connect with other people and spread some laughs.
The Greatest GIFs Are Relatable
When it comes to making a standout GIF, the world is your oyster. You can pull clips from popular films, viral videos, celebrity interviews or even make your own from scratch. A great GIF will focus on a specific feeling or situation that’s relatable to a lot of people. When making GIFs to promote or share your brand, you’ll want to consider your target audience and the content most relevant to them. For some inspiration, check out 2017’s most popular GIFs or BuzzFeed’s 100 Greatest GIFs.
While GIFs are supported on every social media platform that shares images and video, they are especially great for Twitter and Instagram. These apps are especially mobile-friendly, and you can add hashtags to make the GIFs and associated content more discoverable.
How to Make a GIF
There are tons of free tools at your disposal to help you generate a GIF from photos or videos, including:
Many of these programs also have libraries full of pre-made GIFs that you can download, or edit and recycle by slapping on a caption, sticker or filter. Each of these websites functions a little differently, but the core steps are the same:
- Input the images or video that you want to convert into a GIF. Often you’ll have the option of either selecting a file or linking to a URL.
- If you’re using a video, select the range of time to be used. While you can create a GIF that’s up to three minutes long, a shorter range of two to six seconds is going to be more impactful. People won’t be confused if they’re looking at something else on their feed first, then spot your GIF after it has already started looping. You’ll also get more views from people who are skimming their feed while on the go.
- Next, if need be, you can add text to specify (or further emphasize) the situation or feeling you’re expressing. GIFs don’t have audio, so you want the visual messaging to be crystal clear.
- Now your GIF is ready to download. Initially, you might notice that it’s just a series of frames instead of an animation, but if you click and drag the file into your web browser, the GIF should start looping.
Additionally, there are programs that can help you create GIFs from screen recordings, such as CloudApp and Recordit. These apps are a great choice for brands that make tutorial videos or want to demonstrate their website capabilities.
However, if none of these options give you enough creative control, you can make your very own, unique, one-of-a-kind GIF with Photoshop, or we can do it for you. Contact our team to create eye-catching graphics for your social media calendars.
