Monkey Monday - March 28th, 2022

Why you should use more GIFs in your social media marketing

Did you know that, on average, people only retain 10% of the information they’ve been given after three days, but if you include something visual alongside that information, they’ll retain much more? More like 65% in fact.

We also know that video content converts a bit better than static images, and WAAAY better than text-only content.

So that’s why we advocate the use of video content on your social media channels.

Not everyone has the budget to create a load of video content, however. Fortunately, the world has given us GIFs.

GIFs are simple animations usually involving one or two elements that move around in a simple looping pattern. They can be made from vectors or short video clips that loop round and round. They’re really easy and cheap to create. You can even do it yourself. Check out GIPHY to find out more.

So give it a go to find out if your social posts perform better!

If you need help with your social media marketing, talk to us about starting an online marketing retainer.

Transcript Show / Hide

Are you a GIF?

I'm being a GIF. A two frame animated GIF.

Oh yeah. Of somebody walking or somebody dancing?

Somebody robot dancing.

Oh, okay. Good.

Hi, I'm Matt.

And I'm Chris.

Today, we're talking about, well, interestingly, a really small thing.

Yes. Tiny thing, animated GIFs.

Some people call them jifs, but they're wrong.

Well, they came out and said that was right, but...

But it stands for graphic interchange format, or something, doesn't it. I'm remembering off the top of my head. That could be wrong. It's not jraphic. So...

No, you're right.

So it's GIF. Anyone that says otherwise is wrong. And that was this week's vlog.

Oh, thank you.

How to pronounce GIF.

Join us again next week.

Where we're looking at how to pronounce Adobe.

Adobe.

Adobe. So to help we've actually brought some facts to the table. I know, who would've thought it.

Uh, thanks, Maddy. Um, yes. We've got these lovely facts here.

Yeah. So, uh, really interestingly, if you... here's some information. Um, only 10% of it will stick after three days of hearing that information. But if you put that information along with an image, then they'll retain that information, uh, or 65% of that information three days later. So just hearing something or reading something, you can't absorb as much as if you can, if you put a visual alongside it, which is kind of a fascinating way of the brain, how the brain works and interprets information and ties information to imagery. And, uh, obviously you've got, if you're gonna go to the effort of putting a social post together, if you're not really putting any imagery with it, then you are missing a trick and you're not helping people remember your content.

Yeah. And, um, studies have shown, I've seen an image of it that, um, the video is the best thing to put with a social post with some information.

And I think that's fairly common and everyone understands how well video can convert. How it helps click-through rate and does all of this stuff. Video, though, if it's done really well, you know, there's a cost involved to getting that done. So there's a middle ground, right? Which is GIFs. GIFs can help, um, create some movement in that, in your imagery. And it can grab the attention really quickly and it can take a lot less time to produce

Yeah. Around half the time. So if you wanna scrimp on time and you can't find an amazing video agency, then just create a GIF, it's fine.

Yeah. Uh, is that it?

No, cuz there's other things around GIFs because, um, if you try and do a video, you have to compress it into different formats for each social media, um, outlet, but GIFs you can pretty much do what you want and it all just sorts it online.

It's easier, isn't it, it's just easier to work with. Um, as well, they kind of beat just a still photograph or a still image because you can bring humour into them as well. So, you know, you can throw the punchline out there or tell a small story. So they're a great way of being able to bring some deeper visual communication to your audience and have them understand a thing. And they, they convert pretty well. They convert and gain attention better. We don't have the actual stat, but better.

A hundred percent, but no.

Well, let's just make one up 5000% better than just a picture. And that's 3 million% better than just text.

And there's quite a few easy ways of creating GIFs online. There's loads of tools.

And it's think that most organizations, if they're already creating social content can do internally as well. It's just making sure that all of your content you create is relevant for your audience. And just going to a little bit of extra effort can be, uh, you can get better results from it. So rather than just putting out loads and loads of posts, think about a really meaningful post, spend a bit of time animating it and, uh, see how it goes. If that bit of content you've created and you know it's good, doesn't work as well as you expect for it, don't bin it, try it in front of a different audience, reuse the content that you're creating to see what sticks best with the right audience and experiment.

Yeah. And it's interesting cuz in the normal world, when you send WhatsApp messages, or whatever, people communicate using emojis and GIFs, so why shouldn't brands do the same thing?