Whether on text message or some other communication platform, you have most likely sent a GIF to someone as a funny way to respond to them. But have you ever thought of having your business utilize them too?
GIFs, more technically known as Graphic Interchange Format, are a fun yet interesting way to catch your audience’s attention and uniquely convey your message. Especially with most consumers expecting normal advertisements from businesses on social media, GIFs are a great way to get users to stop and notice your post. Although this is a different method of communicating between your business and consumers, the great thing about GIFs is that your consumers will still understand what you are trying to say. Posting GIFs on your business’ social media is guaranteed to both grab your target audience's attention and effectively deliver your message to consumers.
Compared to a static image or video that your business creates itself, GIFs provide a different stimulus to your audience on social media, which then has more impact. Additionally, apart from the creativity, posting GIFs takes way less time. Rather than having to build out content for social media, your business can just search for GIFs to use that fit what you are trying to say in the post, as opposed to dedicating time to generate content.
Did you also know that these short animated images have been around for over 30 years? Since 1987, GIFs have been a creative form of storytelling and visual explanation; the beauty of them is that they are extremely versatile and flexible, fitting into whatever mold you need them to. As a sort of digital language that anyone can understand, GIFs offer a lot of untapped potential for business on social media.
So why are GIFs so valuable to any business’ social media strategy?
1. GIFs effectively deliver your message in a more entertaining way than images or videos.
These short animations have the ability to tell complex messages in a short amount of time. In trying to get consumers to understand what your business is trying to tell them, visual learning is much more successful than plain text. GIFs resonate with your target audience quickly, and avoid any miscommunications in your message or tone.
2. They are easy and quick to consume.
When scrolling on social media, this is the exact type of content that users are looking for, as the span of attention users spend on each post they view is minimal.
3. GIFs keep your business’ social media relevant, up to date, and look appealing overall to consumers.
Although they may be a small part of your social media strategy, GIFs can have a huge impact on the impression you leave on consumers. Utilizing GIFs demonstrates to consumers that you are active on social media, provide entertaining content, and are a valuable business to follow or even invest in.
4. Extremely mobile-friendly.
GIFs can be utilized on any platform, without any formatting issues when it comes time to post them.
5. They are easy to find and share.
No matter what the message is that you are trying to convey, there are an unlimited amount of GIFs that exist, with new ones being created daily. The options are never-ending, and you can access all GIFs on searchable databases such as the GIPHY digital library.
6. Your business has the ability to create its own GIFS.
Whether you cannot exactly find what you are looking for, or you want your GIFs to be a little more personable to your specific business, you can also easily create your own GIFs to utilize and upload to your social media.
7. Creative method of advertising.
Although there are a multitude of messages your business could convey, product promotion is one way a GIF could be utilized. This method of communicating about your products is different from what consumers mostly expect from businesses, apart from being entertaining and creative. Through pre-existing or custom GIFs, users are much more likely to be receptive to product promotion on social media with a GIF rather than plain text next to a static image or long video.
8. GIFs create small movements, which hook your consumers in a short amount of time, while still effectively relaying your message to them.
Movement is in the nature of a GIF. With fast and repetitive clips on replay, GIFs can keep up with the quick digestion time of consumers seeing your posts on social media, which gives your business the opportunity to still get your message to resonate with them. The more they understand your content, the more interested they will become to pay more direct attention to your business in the future.
9. Posting GIFs helps establish your brand identity on social media.
Having a good reputation is an essential key to success for any business. Incorporating entertaining and fun content like GIFs on your business’ social media can build your digital personality, voice, and overall how consumers see your business on the platforms where they are active.
10. GIFs boost engagement.
When more users pay attention and interact with your posts, your engagement rates will consequently increase. As the pool of businesses on social media continues to get more competitive, any effective way to boost engagement for your business should be implemented in your strategy.
Overall, GIFs are a powerful marketing tool that catches the attention of consumers, effectively conveys your message in a short and simple manner, and leaves a positive impact on consumers when they think about your business. Implementing GIFs into your social media strategy are worth the small effort to find and post to your business’ social media.
GIFs and Social Rotation
Want to use GIFs on your business’ social media but don’t want to go through the hassle and extra work? Within Social Rotation’s templated content packs, such as the Engagement Mega Pack, GIFs are already integrated into the rotation of content that can be posted. Without doing any work, your business can leverage the benefits of posting GIFs through Social Rotation’s completely done-for-you content, that is ready to be scheduled out and posted to all of your social media accounts. Additionally, if you are looking to add a different GIF for content, the Social Rotation dashboard has a GIPHY feature, where you can search for GIFs and upload them directly into your bucket of content and be scheduled to post. Integrating GIFs into your digital marketing strategy could not be any more simpler than with the Social Rotation software.
To learn more about the benefits of implementing GIFs into your social media strategy and what Social Rotation could offer as an opportunity to your business, click here to schedule a personalized one-on-one demo with our team.
