Take 5 with Hive: 5 reasons why we love GIFs on Social Media

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a GIF must be a novel – and they are pretty hard to miss on the internet right now!

GIF, pronounced with a hard ‘G’ like ‘Gate’ (agreed after much deliberation within our office) stands for 'Graphics Interchange Format' and is a file that appears to move on the page and is able to loop endlessly. GIFs have been around for a while, but their recent popularity may be due to the fact you can now use them directly through social media, such as via Twitter.

It's because of this, that many have ultilised GIFs as a way to create fresh, eye-catching content for various social media platforms. Check out our why WE are loving GIFs on social right now...

1.) Follow the buzz

GIFs allow you to connect to internet trends. As they are easily made and easily shared, they are a great way to stay relevant by quickly reacting to what is trending in the media.

2.) Brevity is the Soul of Wit

GIFs by nature are fast and easy to consume, which is handy seeing as the average shelf life in our ever-changing digital world is a mere 6 minutes!

3.) Spice up your life

Moving content is a great way to help draw attention to your brand and spice up an otherwise, static and boring page.

4.) Give us a twirl.

GIFs are a great way to show off your products. You can view a product online, but there’s nothing like bringing it to life with a GIF and allowing fans to take a closer look.

Instagram’s latest installment, Boomerang, is their take on the growing popularity of GIFs. Boomerang allows you to make your own GIFs by recording your own bursts of images and stitching them together. We’ve been all over Boomerang on the social media pages we manage:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIZm5pIABEk/?taken-by=hivedc

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIsKh6PgrK6/?taken-by=softandgentleuk

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH4F5i9joGF/?taken-by=inecto_uk