The ultimate guide to gifs and how to embrace them!

GIFs have been dominating the online world for a number of years now, from Tumblr posts to Buzzed articles to even Facebook messenger these days it seems GIFs are an all new way to get your message across.

GIFs, or Graphic Interface Format, is a type of file format which supports still images and animated images. Originally appearing in the 90s Gifs have risen to popularity again in a whole new way. 

With the evolution of the web new tools for Gif creation came about and new ways to feature Gifs become widespread, thanks to this development, Gifs made a reappearance ready to be used by thousands online, including businesses.  

Why use Gifs?

You might think that there’s no way your business could use gifs online and it’s easy to understand why. Many are hesitant about using gifs for fear of looking to be trying to hard or because they aren’t sure how to use them, however there’s plenty of benefits to using gifs in your marketing.

Using gifs shows that your business is aware and paying attention to online trends, showing that your business has a fun side and knows just what others are doing online. Often a gif is much more engaging and attractive then a simple image or piece of text so featuring a gif can be a fun and unique way to grab your audiences attention.

Not only does the use of gifs allow you to create a sense of fun for your business but they are often useful in other ways such as adding context to your messages, even acting as a call to action, encouraging people to read your posts or click on links, offering wide appeal to a number of audiences.  

Where can I use Gifs?

Gifs began their rise to popularity on social networking website Tumblr, often used for reactions to text posts or for people to use instead of writing their own words, however these days most websites and social media platforms support gifs.

Twitter recently incorporated gifs into their ‘compose tweet’ box at the top of the page, now as well as adding your own images, polls and location tagging, gifs are also included. With search options and a huge library of gifs available there’s plenty of options to choose from to include Gifs in your tweets. 

You can also use gifs on Facebook and work just as effectively as they do on the likes f Tumblr and Twitter however currently there isn’t an option to choose from the website, instead you need to include a link to the gif in order to upload it to the website.

There’s also no reason not to include gifs within your blog posts if your website supports them. They provide the same benefits that including gifs within social media posts and can really emphasise any points you may be making in your article.  

Things to consider 

Don’t share too many 

Gifs are great because they stand out. If you continue to add gifs to everything you post or write then your gifs are no longer going to stand out, ultimately turning your readers away.

Double check your gifs 

Don’t rush to post a gif, something that seems to be nonsense can actually have negative connotations. Don’t include gifs that feature things that could be deemed offensive, even if you get the reference others may not and can cause havoc in result.

Quality first

People want to be able to see what the gif is, don’t post poor quality, old, blurry gifs. Search around and include high quality gifs to engage audiences.

With gifs continuing to take the internet by storm, what better time to consider using gifs within your marketing?