Independent watchdog Transport Focus approached us to design and produce a comprehensive online marketing campaign with a range of animated social media posts to promote the Make Delay Pay campaign.

See this project in our portfolio here.

Animated graphics are becoming increasingly popular due to the benefits of user engagement.

What is a GIF and how should you be using them on social media?

A GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) is an image format invented in 1987 by Steve Wilhite, a US software writer who was looking for a way to animate images in the smallest file size. In short, GIFs are a series of images or soundless video that will loop continuously and doesn’t require anyone to press play.

GIFs are used all over social media. A few years ago, GIFs were only popular on websites such as Buzzfeed, Reddit and Tumblr but since then social media giants Facebook and Twitter have jumped on this animation trend. In 2016 over 100 million GIFs were shared on Twitter alone and with Facebooks GIF search engine available on messenger they are now easier to post and re share than ever before.

How can they benefit your business?

  • GIFs are easy to post and share.
  • GIFs show that you’re paying attention to trends.
  • GIFs display your companies’ personality.
  • GIFs can add more context or emotion in a much shorter message.

How should you use GIFs

GIFs will not only keep your audience more engaged but they’ll make sure your brand doesn’t appear too serious. Whether you want to build brand awareness or create viral content here are a few ways we recommend you use these animated wonders:

  • Show off your product or service
  • Infographics or visual instructions
  • Make your data more exciting
  • Product reveals and teasers
  • Create awareness of brand campaigns

Posting GIFs

You can upload GIFs directly onto Facebook and Twitter as a post update as you would normally. These will then play on a continuous loop on your timeline.

If you want to animate your business get in touch with Allen Design Team today.