When opening up your Instagram App and going through the first few Instagram Stories, it’s quite likely that all of the sudden you will be greeted by various little figures, symbols or quotes dancing around on your screen – These are Instagram GIF Stickers. Currently, GIFs are everywhere and quite soon, they will be your best friend as well.
What sounds like a job for the pro’s actually isn’t all too difficult – That’s why today, we’re going to show you the magic behind creating your own personalized Instagram GIF Stickers from scratch.
What are Instagram GIF Stickers?
Generally speaking, Instagram Stickers are all the options you get to choose from in the Sticker-Menu, which you can access through the top bar. These currently include polls, questions, location, tagging – and GIF Stickers. More precisely, today we’re going to be working with the Instagram GIF Stickers, as shown in the image above. In essence, these Instagram GIF Stickers stemmed from a collaboration with Giphy now help to spice up your Instagram Story by adding the last, finishing touch to it.
Whether it’s cats making a happy dance, a good morning message or simply arrows pointing at another item of your story: Instagram GIF Stickers are all the rage!
In particular, the great thing is that you yourself can go in, create your own personalized Instagram Story GIF Stickers and use them to create individualized, branded Instagram Stories – and all it takes is just a bit of creativity and handiwork!
The benefits of (personalized) Instagram GIF Stickers
Essentially, personalized Instagram GIF Stickers help you with 2 major things: Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty. This makes Instagram GIF Stickers invincible in organic marketing on Instagram. But now, let’s look into this a little bit deeper.
Branding: Stick to the Corporate Identity
When preparing a Feed-Post most people will be careful to stick to Corporate Identity guidelines and make sure it fits into the grand scheme of things. However, when someone creates an Instagram Story, he or she doesn’t usually put in as much thought. Much rather, the user snaps a picture and uploads it. While there is nothing wrong about that, just keep in mind that you could get a greater effect out of your Instagram Stories by incorporating your Branding.
Creating your own, personalized Instagram GIF Stickers is an extremely useful Instagram Marketing Tool. They allow you to give your Stories an individual touch while giving the feeling that they are part of something bigger. Sharing matching Stories over a long period of time – by using personalized Instagram GIF Stickers – can help people associate your Branding with you and your business better.
In turn, this will not only result in a strong Corporate Identity but also generate awareness and help people remember your business, coming back for it at a later point in time!
Community Use
Once published, Instagram GIF Stickers are not only available to their creator but to the whole Instagram Community. This is great, because now, instead of only one person using the stickers, there’s a bunch of people that can help you spread your message and brand awareness at the same time!
Here’s an example of how this works: Imagine your friend Beth using the new McDonalds GIF Stickers. In seconds, everybody will recognize the vibrant red and yellow colors, resulting in Beth voluntarily and unawarely advertising McDonald’s.
This Snowball Effect doubles in size once you have gotten a hang of using the keywords of your stickers to your advantage. However, for it to truly work, you need to keep in mind that people will not simply add your logo to their story and call it a day. That’s why some generalized stickers usually are a great idea, but we will get to that later in the post.
Grab Attention
While being fun and goofy to play around with, Instagram GIF Stickers do not only fulfill the purpose of animating and jazzing up your Story Content. More so, the fact that Instagram GIF Stickers are always in motion makes them grab people’s attention. This causes them to look at the content on the actual Instagram Story more carefully. As you can imagine, this has a huge effect when it comes to your viewers actually absorbing the message you put out there.
But it doesn’t stop there: With higher attention, Engagement Rates and Brand Recognition rise significantly! So in case you want people to really take in what you write, maybe try opting for Instagram GIF Stickers once in a while!
Are you struggling with your Engagement Rates? Click here to learn how to increase Instagram Engagement in 5 Steps!
How to create your own Instagram GIF Stickers
Generally speaking, there are 2 main things you need to do in order to be able to use your very own, personalized Instagram GIF Stickers in your Instagram Stories:
- Ready-to-go GIF Stickers that fit your Branding
- A GIPHY Brand Channel
Let’s start with the fun part: Creating individual GIF Stickers that go with your Corporate Identity and spark joy upon usage.
How to create a Sticker
Here, the first step will be deciding which program to use.
Personally, we have used Adobe Programs like Illustrator, After Effects, Photoshop or sometimes Premiere Pro to create our Stickers. Other options can also include Procreate or Canva. Naturally, the how of creating a GIF will depend on which program you use and the type of GIF you would like to create.
So, here’s how we did it using Adobe Programs only!
How to create Image and Font Stickers
Step 1: Adobe Illustrator
First of all, open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document. Usually, opting for the size of 800×600 px is the best option for Instagram GIF Stickers, but feel free to experiment with shapes and sizes.
Next, you can simply release your creative spirits and design your GIF to your likings. Do this by creating several images on different pages in varying colors, sizes, places. Why on different pages you might ask? This will allow the GIF to move and give it the typical GIF-feeling.
As the last step here chose the option “Export for Screens”
Step 2: Photoshop
After opening Photoshop, click on “Open” and select the first picture from your GIF, then select “Picture Sequence” for the program to automatically import the other pictures and create a sequence.
This is what it should look like:
Now, choose the frame rate, which is basically “the speed at which images are shown […] and it’s usually expressed as “frames per second” or FPS” (Techsmith)
As a last step here, export the Sticker you created for Web and choose the setting “GIF” at the top.
How to create People GIF Stickers
Step 1: Record the Video
In order to create a GIF Sticker from a video, you first need to record the video. This could be anything, a driving car, a thumbs up, a running person – You name it!
For this usually, a simple phone camera should work. However, the better the camera, the better the quality will come out in the end and the less grainy your Instagram GIF Stickers will be when using them.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind to simplify post-production:
- Make sure the video is very bright and illuminated because this is how it will show up as a GIF
- Have a solid background color that’s as different from the actual object you’re trying to capture as possible. In case you have a Greenscreen, definitely make use of it! Alternatively, a blanc wall works as well – we used one to create our Stickers!
- Wear solid colors, as patterns might turn out glitchy
Step 2: After Effects
Create a new document with the size 1080×1080 px for a square GIF Sticker or experiment with other dimensions.
In order to isolate the object, click on “Effect” → “Keys” → “Color Range” and then choose the background with the pipette. Here, make sure the whole background is selected so that it will be removed from the object completely.
Then, export it by adding it to the render queue and choose “AVI” or “Quick Time”. Then, select “RGB+Alpha” to export the video in the format you’ll need it to be.
Step 3: Photoshop
After opening Photoshop, click on “Open” and select the video you just created. Now, adapt length and other assets.
As a last step here, export the Sticker you created for Web and choose the setting “GIF” at the top.
An easier solution: GIPHY GIF Maker
Sometimes, time is short and you don’t have the time to spend hours upon creating animated Instagram GIF Stickers. This is where the GIPHY GIF Maker comes in: With it, GIPHY offers the possibility to create very simple GIFS on the website itself.
How to upload Stickers to GIPHY
Step 1: GIPHY Brand/Artist Channel
First of all, head over to GIPHY and log in to an existing account or create a new GIPHY Account. For you to be able to get a GIPHY Brand or Artist Channel, you first need to upload at least 5 of your Stickers as an “application”. Along with your application, you will be required to fill in the following form:
(Source: AllFacebook, 2020)
Here are some tips for filling out the application form:
Email Address: Brands are obliged to use an email address with a company domain, matching the applying username, ex: name@weboundmarketing.com.
Username: When applying for a Brand Channel, the username you chose for GIPHY must be accurate to the name of your business, including underscores, numbers, etc.
Website: Brands are obliged to provide the real link to the business’ web domain – Social Accounts are not valid here.
Social Profile: Here, add the full URL of a Social Media Account that offers the most accurate representation of your brands’ online presence, e.g. verified accounts
Although some points might be marked as “Optional”, fill them in as much as possible for GIPHY to be able to judge you on the best pretenses.
Now, we wait! It usually takes about 3-5 workdays for your application to be processed and for you to receive a reply.
Step 2: Uploading the GIFs
To upload the GIFs select “Upload” in the top bar of the website.
Now, drop in the desired GIF and fill in the information needed.
When it comes to “Add Tags” keep in mind who should use the Instagram GIF Stickers.
If you upload them solely for the purpose of using them to brand your content, only add tags that you’ll be using so as to make sure as few other people as possible use them.
However, if you created Stickers for the broad mass, use tags that people would generally use when looking for the type of Instagram GIF Stickers you created, plus your brand tags as well.
Keep in mind the following:
- The Source URL must be your business’ link of a working web domain
- The setting “Public” must be switched to “On” for you to access the GIFs via Instagram Story Stickers
As the last step, click on “Upload to Giphy”.
So now, it’s time to lean back and wait again. Even though GIPHY usually activates your GIFs quite quickly, it might take a few days from that point on until you can access them on Social Media and use them as Instagram GIF Stickers.
Things to keep in mind
In order to maximize the potential of Instagram GIF Stickers to boost Reach, Engagement, and Brand Awareness, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Blanc Background
Do you know this feeling when you find a great GIF, are excited to use and, but once you add it to your picture, suddenly it pops up with a white background? Spare yourself and the future users of your Instagram GIF Stickers the pain and make sure to create GIFs with a transparent background in every single frame. Otherwise, you would also not be able to upload them to GIPHY.
GIPHY has an easy-to-remember rule for this: At least 20% of the first frame must be transparent to register as a sticker.
Stick to the Branding
Although Instagram GIF Stickers give you a lot of freedom to express your creativity, you should try to keep a certain degree of consistency in the online presence of your brand so as not to confuse people that are following your brand.
After a certain time of consistency in your branding, people will start associating specific colors, fonts, shapes and even personality traits with your brand. So be sure to stick to those when creating brand-related Instagram GIF Stickers in order to be able to expand this brand consistency into your Instagram Story.
Broaden it out
Besides brand-related GIFs, you might also want to think about creating a range of more generally usable Instagram GIF Stickers. This is to make sure not just you and your colleagues, but people all around the world use them, broadening your Reach and Brand Awareness.
So while creating a Sticker of your logo might be of great use for yourself, think about what kind of Instagram GIF Stickers people like to use and let your creativity flow. Create fun quotes, cute icons or even relatable poses to achieve this.
By providing 30+ Stickers without a narrow context that the broad mass can use, we achieved more than 300,000 views in only 2 weeks without promoting and telling anyone about their existence.
How to access (weBOUND marketing’s) Instagram GIF Stickers
Now that you’ve put all the work in making your Instagram GIF Stickers work, naturally, you want to get the bang for your buck.
To access your Instagram GIF Stickers, open up your Instagram App, snap a Story photo and click the Sticker Icon on the top, then select “GIF”. In the Search Bar, add the tags that you used when uploading your GIFs to GIPHY and see the magic unfold on your screen. Now, simply choose the Sticker you want to use and incorporate it into your Instagram Story!
Want to be part of the weBOUND Community? Use one of the following tags to access the official weBOUND Instagram GIF Stickers on Instagram to show us how much you like this post and stickers! (Also don’t forget to mention @weboundmarketing in your Instagram story so we can engage with your content!)
#webound
#weboundmarketing
#webound marketing
Get more out of your GIFs
We admit it, creating Instagram GIF Stickers is not exactly a piece of cake. That’s why it’s even better that there are many more options to use your GIFs other than on Instagram Stories. Besides Instagram, GIPHY also has agreements with other social networks, e.g. Facebook. This allows you to use your GIFs on more platforms and even embed them in website code!
Ready to create your own stickers yet? Show them to us by tagging @weboundmarketing.com in your next Instagram post!
Not sure how to get started? We can help!
Anna, our video marketing manager, is happy to help you with your own Instagram stickers to increase your brand awareness, reach and trust.
Just reach out to us by scheduling a call.
When networking wizard Bettina is not working on the next big idea, then she is focusing on how to constantly improve workflows, and systemizing the “stuff that is not so much fun but needs to be done”. She believes in giving and that being kind gets you a long way.
You might spot her as a keynote speaker, a guest lecturer at universities, or a mentor at StartupLive or Greenstart by Climate and Energy Fonds Austria.
Bettina describes herself as a foodie, travel addict, and her team sees her as a true leader, who always encourages everyone she is working with.
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