How to Boost Your Social Media With Animated Content
Animated content is taking over social media. From funny GIFs to explanatory videos, animation brings posts to life and captures attention in a sea of content.
As visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest gain popularity, standing out requires eye-catching visuals. Animation adds motion, humor, and flair that plain images and text lack.
Studies show the power of visual content:
Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without (Buzzsumo, 2015)
Visual content is 40X more likely to be shared than other types (Buffer, 2014)
Twitter users shared over 100 million GIFs in 2017 (Twitter, 2016)
Animation brings many benefits for brands:
Animated Videos Explain and Engage
Explainer videos use animation to demonstrate products, explain concepts, tell stories, and more. The medium allows brands to show rather than tell.
For example, an app startup could show how their app works through an animated flow. Or a software company might use a video to walk through a complicated process.
Animation conveys complex ideas clearly and memorably. Viewers are more likely to watch and understand an engaging video versus reading blocks of text.
Videos also spread further than images alone. Posting natively within platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter encourages views, likes, and shares.
Character Animation Puts a Face on Your Brand
Every brand needs a face, but relying on real humans has downsides:
- Spokespeople may not represent the values you want associated with your brand
- Their schedules and contracts can limit content
- If they leave, your brand recognition goes with them
Character animation solves these problems by creating an illustrated mascot. Brands like Geico and Jollibee build recognition through consistently animated characters.
Software like Adobe Character Animator makes it easy to animate a character. You can even perform the motions and dialogue live!
The character acts as your brand persona across platforms. It stars in videos, GIFs, and static posts with a consistent look. This develops familiarity while staying flexible for your content needs.
GIFs and Cinemagraphs Are Endlessly Shareable
GIFs compress video into a short, looping format with no sound. The constraints force brands to convey an idea quickly with motion and humor.
A funny or delightful GIF drives shares because people want to spread joy. Brands like Wendy‘s win attention through humorous GIF reply chains on Twitter.
Cinemagraphs take GIFs further by animating only part of an image. The effect draws eyes to products and scenes. Fashion brands use these on Instagram to highlight clothing and styles.
Tools like GIPHY allow creating and downloading GIFs for posts. Or work with an animator to produce custom Cinemagraphs specific to your brand.
The shareability of these formats gives incredible bang for your buck. A single high-quality GIF can spread for months via shares and news articles.
Animation Adds Dimension to Any Post
Any social post can benefit from animation:
Overlay text or graphics on photos/videos: Bring static posts to life by animating brand elements on top. For example, have your logo or mascot bounce around an influencer‘s photo.
Animate a sequence: Show progression by animating a set of sequential frames. This could display a process, transformation, or passage of time.
Highlight part of an image: Use selective animation to draw eyes to products. Make them spin, change colors, or slide into frame against an otherwise still background.
Extend stories: Pick up the story from an influencer‘s post in your own animated version. Their real video leaves questions unanswered…which your animation solves!
Enhance meaning: Add context and clarity to confusing posts. Animate thought bubbles, charts, or diagrams over real content to better explain it.
Subtle animations boost static posts in surprising yet relevant ways. Each example increases understanding and engagement with the underlying content.
Animation Aligns Brand Consistency
Brand recognition develops through consistency across channels. Animation provides continuity for tone, style, colors, characters, messaging, and more.
It removes reliance on unpredictable real-world conditions. Any concept can be serialized across endless animations.
For example, animation gives brands like Charmin and Head & Shoulders endless ways to reinforce their messages. Their skits star brand mascots that reinforce values using any scenario imaginable.
Animation acts as a sandbox for marketers. The flexible medium adapts a brand‘s identity to trends, holidays, influencers, and platforms. All while staying on-message.
Tips for Boosting Social Media With Animation
Here are tips to incorporate animation across your brand‘s social presence:
Start with your goal – Determine what you want viewers to know/do after seeing your content. Align the animation to that singular goal.
Keep it short – Social media favors brevity. Break up longer messages into a series. And cut GIFs off after a couple loops max.
Time it correctly – Understand when your audiences are most active online and aim content for those high-traffic periods.
Promote organic discovery – Upload natively so algorithms show your content to interested viewers who engage with your hashtags/topics.
Collaborate with influencers – Encourage user-generated content featuring your brand, products, or hashtag by sending free samples. Animate on top!
Analyze and optimize – Pay attention to top-performing content so you can refine and produce more of what works.
Automate for consistency – Use tools like Hootsuite to pre-program a steady cadence of posts according to your calendars and budgets.
Have fun! – Animation conveys emotion well. Don‘t be afraid to show your brand‘s silly side when appropriate.
With the rise of digital platforms built on eye-catching visuals, animation is becoming a requirement rather than a luxury. Brands investing in animated content now will build familiarity and trust with audiences.
Stay ahead of competitors by animating your brand message across every possible social channel today!
