December 7, 2015: Compelling visuals are necessary for any successful social media presence. While stock and free image sites are great in a pinch, nothing is better than creating and sharing your own unique content. Consequently, we recommend shooting your own images and videos whenever possible, especially during live events.
For those of you daring content creators that want to stand out, animated GIFs provide a fantastic way to easily share engaging content. GIFs are a perfect way to express emotions, snark, or a pop culture reference with your followers. While databases like GIPHY contain thousands of GIFs organized by “reactions” and themes, there are also tools available that can help you make your own GIFs using nothing more than your smart phone. If you don’t have a Vine account and longer video formats intimidate you, a GIF is your answer. It’s also a more interesting way to take a selfie, if you ask me.
We’ve gathered our 5 favorite GIF-makers below, and I tested several on my morning coffee:
Made with DSCO, using the “MTV” filter
DSCO: Everyone’s favorite photo editor VSCO recently released an app for shooting and sharing GIFs. This app stands out for the artistic filters that VSCO is known (and loved) for. The app lets you post GIFs directly to your VSCO grid. With trendy partnerships like MTV and Opening Ceremony, DSCO is sure to explode in popularity soon.
Tumblr:Tumblr recently introduced a GIF-maker in its app update, which was welcomed warmly by its GIF-loving community. The Tumblr app allows you to take videos, turn them into GIFs, and share them directly on your tumblog. If you’re already an active Tumblr user, this is an easy way to make GIFs out of content that already exists.
Made with GiphyCam
GiphyCam: Giphy is the ultimate database for GIFs, and they’ve now outdone themselves by introducing GiphyCam. GiphyCam is insanely addicting, allowing you to capture a GIF and add fun filters, overlays, and text. The best part? Giphycam has direct sharing features that let you send said GIF directly to your contacts through text or Facebook Messenger (among the other social networks). Facebook’s emoticons seem irrelevant when you can just send your own more expressive facial reactions instead.
Phhhoto: This app has been around for a while, and unfortunately didn’t get the hype that it should have. Popular among the teen demographic, Phhhoto even has its own social network and “parties” where you can share your moving images with other users, which is a cool idea for live events. Phhhoto takes 4 photos and stitches them together, and lets you add a few filters available daily.
Made with Instagram’s Boomerang.
Boomerang:Made by Instagram, Boomerang is a highly simplistic GIF-recorder. Boomerang takes a burst of photos and turns it into a GIF that loops forwards and backwards seamlessly. Instagram obviously integrates very well with the Instagram app, and also autosaves your GIF to your camera roll.
Did we forget a GIF-maker that you use? Tweet it at @diditmarketing!
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