With the emergence of social media and the rise of viral content, our way of communication to one another has rapidly evolved. Most importantly the way we design information to be passed on.
Love it or hate it; social media is here to stay and it has revolutionized how brands and corporations communicate to their employees and customers.
While we become a more and more visual driven audience, Film and Animation have never been so sought out for than now; making it a powerful medium to bring ideas to life.
The possibilities are endless! So because we are passionate about animation and its different uses, I’d like to share with you five ways you can use animation on social media.
1) Facebook Posts & Ads
Short and sweet. Convey your message in a way that will grab the attention of your audience as they scroll through Facebook. Creating an Ad that could go viral and create some buzz could help gain some momentum for your brand. Being fearless with your message is always a plus and your audience will appreciate it. A strong story generates a strong response.
Maybe you are in the banking business and you need to attract new investors. You want to stand out from your competition by adding some animation into the mix. A fun coin looking character or a quirky looking banker inviting you on an adventure could potentially direct traffic to your website or fan page.
2) Mini Documentaries
If you have a company, you have a strong message to share. Then, why not go with a short doco. Animated or not, these always create more insight into what your business is all about. These can vary in length and can be even created using mixed media (Film and Animation).
Documentaries are a good way to share an intriguing story that takes place within your business or that directly connects to it. It can be an animated testimonial or simply a short spot highlighting a specific trait of your business.
Great examples of these are VOX and other channels alike. Showing a fun and unique way of turning a mundane subject into a visual treat; and learn some facts in the process.
3) Instagram: Posts, Stories and IGTV
Instagram has been becoming the most sought out platform for companies and brands. They are flocking it and so should you. In comparison to Facebook – Instagram scrolling happens much quicker. Therefore; allowing no time to be wasted when it comes to grabbing your audience’s attention.
A looping animation of a character, product or logo could potentially be a gateway for your audience to step into your profile and explore your store or company.
Instagram stories can be very interactive and designing an animation around that idea could attract a fair amount of traffic to your brand.
From Geo-tagging to creating polls and chat invitations you can pump up that engagement and get some likes in the process.
Your click funnel may not end there; you could even add in your Mini Doco into IGTV and nest it there for your audience to browse through.
It’s basically Netflix on Instagram!
4) Animated GIFs
These have always been an audience favourite, let’s thank social media for including these fun little guys into their equation. Whether it’s a watermelon crying of laughter or a dancing giraffe, they all express your audience’s emotions. Create a set of GIFs and upload them to GIPHY!; where everyone who searches the GIF option on Facebook and Instagram will be able to use and share them with their friends and family.
5) YouTube
When it comes to moving images, YouTube is a strong platform. Here you can share longer and more intricate films.
By creating your own channel you can upload all sorts of content, which can later be shared around other platforms mentioned above.
For example; if you are a health care professional; it’s a great place to nest your explainer video about a particular disease or medical procedure to then share to Facebook or Instagram.
Take "The School of Life" and the "TED Ed"shorts as another example of great use of the platform and to communicate a message through animation.
Boost Juices: Making of a Smoothie Facebook viral campaign.
Social media is a strong tool for all business sizes. By mixing these up and creating a campaign designed around them you’ll be able to attract a decent amount of interest to your brand.
If you’ve stuck around this long you’ve might have noticed how all these platforms are intertwined with each other creating a web of sharing options.
When it comes to material and coming up with ideas for your social media campaign, remember to create shareable material that your audience can relate to.
At The Wolf and the Forest, not only do we have a thorough understanding of how this works but also how to make your videos pop out with a fun and engaging message.
If you have an idea or looking to brainstorm for one contact us now for a chat and how we might be able to assist you on your Social Media content needs.
Hello! As far as I know, such videos need to be converted to mp4 to upload them to Instagram. Perhaps you should mention in your article that convert ts to mp4 can help with this.Thanks for the great article! I personally think that animated GIFs and mini documentaries are currently the most powerful ways of sharing your message on social media.