If you’re a Twitter user, it’s likely that not too many days go by without seeing a humorous GIF on your timeline. Or…, have you never received a good morning GIF from a family member via WhatsApp?…
On Facebook they have already taken over the comment spaces, making interactions between people and between brands and consumers more fun. On Instagram, they are popular in Stories.
There is nowhere to run, GIFs come with everything and have already dominated the main current social networks. Therefore, including this content format in your will give you new flights without a doubt.
With a loading system that is simpler than that of videos and with its ability to generate high retention thanks to its loop effect and its short duration, this format has much to contribute to your business’ activity on social networks.
Do you want to know more about the subject? Join us and learn more advantages of including GIFs in your , as well as discover 6 great tools that you can use to create them.
Why use GIFs in your content production?
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It is a compact format of animated images in the form of a loop.
Although with a limited color palette, it already surpasses RLE in quality, a similar but older image animation format that was restricted to black and white.
Very common on the web and in social networks, it is used especially to create small animations, since, in general, GIF content is fun and is used as .
With a higher loading speed than video files, this format can be strategic to ensure that your content is read to the end.
Basically, its objective is to facilitate the user, encourage their engagement and share the publications.
Another of its uses as a marketing tool is that it can even be used to drive traffic to some videos. For example, depending on the platform used to create the GIF, it will be possible to include a link to the YouTube video from which it was extracted.
How to make a GIF?
Now that you know a little more about the possibilities of using GIFs in marketing strategies, discover 6 different tools that you can use to create this type of file.
1. WhatsApp
The GIFs available for sending in the WhatsApp chat are stored on the Tenor website. However, the famous messaging application also allows the creation of GIFs and, specifically, from videos.
Through it, it is possible to use videos already stored on the cell phone or make new creations using the application’s camera directly, using videos or video clips with a duration of up to 6 seconds.
To save the file, simply send it directly to the chat by selecting the GIF option, which is displayed in the upper corner of the screen.
Check out the gif we made of our developer Gabriel, here at , using this feature 🙂
2. IMGFLIP
One of the advantages of In relation to other tools on our list is that for the creation of GIFs it allows you to upload videos from your computer.
Depending on the platform, .mp4 and .ogg are the formats that work best and offer the best results for displaying GIFs in your player.
Other features include adjusting the width, height and speed of the loop. You can also create GIFs from videos hosted on YouTube using their links.
The tool can be used free of charge, although in this case the files are published with a watermark that includes the name of the software. In the paid version, the mark is removed.
3.EZGIF
It is a web page that manages to be even more complete than the previous one. In addition to allowing you to create a gif from images or videos, it also has editing tools.
But the best thing about EZGIF is the Resize tool, which allows you to resize the size of the gif, very useful to reduce very large files.
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After:
4. Giphy
can be understood as a social network to share GIFs and stickers, a specific GIF format that is used especially in.
To create a GIF in Giphy, just go to the GIF Maker tab and enter a video link (which can be hosted on YouTube or Vimeo). Next, a timeline is selected, in which you can choose the start and end times, as well as the duration of the GIF loop.
In addition, it is also possible to insert texts, symbols and other elements in the created file, which makes Giphy one of the most complete platforms to create GIFs from videos.
5. Make a GIF
it is also an interesting option to create GIFs. One of its main advantages is to do it from four different types of submissions: sequence of static images from the computer, videos from the computer, YouTube links and videos captured with a webcam.
The site is free and as a first option GIFs can be up to 5 seconds long. Then if you take a moment to register you can create animations of up to 10 seconds.
6. Boomerang
Boomerang is another Instagram resource.
Basically, the user opens the app, then captures a few seconds of footage and waits for the GIF to render. Then, just open the Instagram to share it.
And it also has the rewind function that allows you to record videos from “back to front”. Generating an effect that resembles VHS tapes when rewound.
And if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can download it for free at either own app for that.
Is free!
7. Photoshop
If you want to know how to make a GIF from scratch, is an excellent tool for it. The first step is to create the content to choose the layers that will be animated.
Then, you have to select the option “Create frame animation” with which a timeline will start, being able to edit your material right there.
This option is especially useful for frame-by-frame animations, and in this case one of the necessary actions will be to select the “Always” option, to enable the infinite loop of the GIF. Finally, it will be necessary to select the .gif format to export the file.
Now you can create your gifs!
Animations are on the rise, it is a format compatible with the most diverse social networks — Facebook, WhatsApp, and even Instagram Stories.
Therefore, knowing how to make a GIF is a good strategy to become relevant and speak the same language as your audience, especially the younger ones.
As you may have seen in our text, producing content in this format is far from being a seven-headed bug.
If you don’t have the manpower to develop something from scratch, try testing videos hosted on YouTube and share your content in different formats.
Oh, and take advantage of the fact that you’ve come this far to find out other tips on how to do a good job of marketing and sales on social networks, by reading:
This post was published in August 2019 and has been updated to contain more complete and precise information.
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