If a picture is worth 1,000 words, what's the value of a shareworthy GIF? On social platforms, visual assets can attract, inform, and connect with audiences while also driving engagement. People recall more information when a picture accompanies text, neuroscience research shows, and tweets with images receive more clicks, favorites, and retweets than posts without images, according to Buffer, a social media management company. Tweets that incorporate GIFs earn 25 times the number of views and three to five times the number of likes than those without them, says the video-hosting and analytics firm Wistia. Take a look at some ways institutions are using GIFS to connect with their audiences.
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Relatable research: GIFs help communicate scientific findings and discoveries, simplify complex ideas, attract media attention, provide journalists with useful visuals, and diversify an institution's storytelling methods. Posts that include a GIF are shared more often than posts with a photo, says Mike Petroff, senior associate director of content strategy at Harvard.
Show and tell: If researchers are discussing practical applications for soft robots (above) or explaining why birds don't crash when they fly through narrow spaces, visuals like GIFs make such content more digestible, shareable, and accessible. The acclaimed UC Research Tumblr (ucresearch.tumblr.com) serves a similar purpose for the University of California. The platform helps the university system tell stories about the research its campuses produce in a playful manner that's easily repurposed on social media.
Ponder platforms: "Uploading native content to social platforms is becoming more and more important," Petroff says. "Think about what types of content do well on which platforms and how people interact with it. Audiences generally are less willing to click through to a story, so we're looking at how we can tell a complete story on each channel and how we can measure a story that's told across platforms."
Fun fact: Harvard is one of nearly two dozen colleges and universities with its own channel on the GIF-sharing site Giphy. The partnership, which began in 2015, serves a practical purpose. "We had a place to host video and audio but nowhere to host the GIFs we were creating so that other [Harvard] schools could easily access them," Petroff says. The channel provides his team with analytics, such as where and how GIFs are being used.
St. Lawrence University, New York
Create connection: GIFs help engage future and current students, share humor and excitement, and express support and empathy.
Be true to your campus: In 2015, St. Lawrence started creating personalized GIFs to congratulate and welcome accepted students via Twitter. The new students loved them, and the tweets' reach and engagement were much greater than photos alone, says Meg Keniston, assistant director of editorial services and social media. Keniston and her student team have shifted some of the focus of this personalized strategy toward sending welcome messages on Snapchat—fewer people are posting their acceptances on Twitter or Instagram—but the effort demonstrated the popularity and flexibility of customized, campus-specific GIFs. "If you're using a pop culture GIF, you need to consider the implications of using that character, show, or movie," Keniston says. "Sometimes the associated message [of the image] would just be wrong." So her student team is creating more GIFs specific to St. Lawrence, such as a student running on the quad on a sunny day and then collapsing in the grass.
When pop hits the spot: But sometimes a pop culture GIF works best to connect with students or convey a feeling. St. Lawrence uses GIFs sourced from TV shows and movies, such as Paths of Glory starring alumnus Kirk Douglas, for occasions like final exams and athletic competitions.
McMaster University Alumni Association, Canada
Focused on the family: GIFs help attract the attention of current students (aka future alumni) and young alumni.
How marvelous: One of Erin O'Neil's strategic priorities as an alumni digital engagement officer for McMaster is to "inform, delight, and empower" current and future alumni. "‘Delight' is something that we talk about a lot in the office," she says. "If we can make something a little more enjoyable, and it's not going to cost us anything resource-wise, then we'll take that opportunity."
We knew you when: The alumni association hosts events to foster familiarity and educate students about what the organization can do for them. Food is essential for enticing attendees-and so are fun GIFs and images on social channels and in emails. Since fall 2014, the alumni association's "Exam Wishes" program has delivered delight in the form of tasty treats like poutine, smoothies, doughnuts, and coffee during final exams. The rules: Students tweet their desired snack as well as the location where they are studying, await a yummy delivery, and thank the alumni volunteers and sponsors who support the program.
Thanks worth sharing: McMaster's "Help Us Thank You" project doesn't use GIFs, but it does rely on personalized images to delight and thank donors who make online or phonathon gifts and share their social media handles during the process. The areas donors give to, such as financial aid or the library, often inspire the graphics used on McMaster's social channels. "People don't want to brag about themselves, but they will gladly participate if someone else wants to brag about them," O'Neil says. "So we basically say that we will brag about them if they let us."
How do you say GIF?
Do you pronounce the acronym for Graphics Interchange Format like the word gift minus the "T"? Or do you say it with a "J" sound like the peanut butter brand? Steve Wilhite, who invented the GIF in 1987, flustered many people when he took issue with the Oxford English Dictionary's acceptance of both pronunciations in a May 2013 interview with The New York Times. "It is a soft ‘G,' pronounced ‘jif.' End of story," Wilhite told the newspaper. For the record, every social media professional interviewed for this article opted for the gift-like version. Sorry, Papa GIF.