I have always thought of GIFs as funny things you include in a text or comment on Facebook. One of the video creation programs I use tried to position the ability to create GIFs in addition to MP4 videos as an upsell a while ago, and I frankly didn’t get it. I couldn’t see the business application of GIFs.
Personally, I found GIFs in blog posts, which are used for attention grabbing, annoying. People used cats doing funny things or scenes from TV shows or people jumping up and down cheering, which didn’t make a lot of business sense to me.
Then, I started playing around with creating custom GIFs that contained relevant text and visuals for my audience. I realized that GIFs can play automatically, whereas generally someone has to click to start a video.
Using GIFs meant a visitor to my website page would likely see the visual or text I wanted them to see in a way they might not ignore. Colorful GIFs grab attention and add stickiness to your page. Let me share some recent examples.
For my speaking page, I could create an MP4 that most people wouldn’t click on, or I could have a GIF that ensured they saw my key points and images.
I am starting the big push for my book launch (hopefully late January) so I want to socialize my book cover and get people excited about it. Once the initial cover design reveal was done, I wanted to create more visually appealing content to keep the momentum going and build awareness.
Here is a GIF for the book coming soon. Oh yeah it’s hot – lol.
Then, I wanted to tie in the book with recent trends in the workplace such as The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting because I am diving into what motivated these trends and what we need to address going forward to decrease attrition. Everyone seemed to love this one.
My art historian client said that from her trained perspective I should create an image with fire and smoke where the book was revealed as the answer to the problem. Done!
During the actual launch, I will tie this awesome blurb for my book that actually mentions lava:
“Like any important work, Catherine Morgan’s book reads somewhere between the transcripts of a very vital conversation and an instruction manual for a new business world that’s still in the ‘cooling lava’ stages of forming. I need this book. You might, too! If you’ve felt a bit dented, here’s the fix.”
— Chris Brogan, Chief of Staff, Appfire.com
As you can see, I am having way too much fun with these.
Trying to cut through the noise and actually get someone’s attention is hard! These seem to be working well, so I thought I would share my strategy here in case you want to try it.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
