Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in existence today.
As of August 2021, approximately 15 million Malaysians use Instagram. This works out to about 45% of the total number of Malaysians.
Have you ever wondered how you can take advantage of this and start marketing your brand on Instagram?
One of the best strategies is definitely through better engagement and interaction.
And guess what? You can increase engagement in a fun and creative way via Instagram GIF stickers!
In this article, we’ll walk you step by step on how to make a GIF for Instagram that’s unique to your brand. You can actually create Instagram GIF stickers easily without much time-consuming training.
Let’s go!
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What Exactly is a Branded Instagram GIF Sticker?
The term GIF stands for “Graphic Interchange Format” and it’s actually a simple animation made from several images or short videos.
They are moving images that can be used on social media in the comment sections, videos, and your own stories.
The usage of Instagram GIF stickers is pretty popular on Instagram stories, which are content that appears only for 24 hours.
Further reading: Instagram Story Algorithms
IG stories are displayed on the top of a user’s account and the stories from accounts they interact most with will be displayed first.
When creating these stories, individual accounts will be able to use Instagram stickers to embellish their posts.
These moving stickers are Insta GIF files that users can select and then place anywhere on their stories to make them more interactive.
If you are wondering how to make text move on Instagram story, the answer is actually easy: you do it by making an Instagram GIF stickers file.
This GIF file will animate two or more text designs together so that they look like they’re moving.
Why Should Instagram GIFs be Part of Your Instagram Marketing?
Instagram is the perfect place to market your products and services, especially if they’re targeted at younger Malaysians in their 20s to 40s. This is the age group that will be open and keen on using social media memes and GIFs.
Read also: How to Use Social Media Memes for Content Marketing
There are many Instagram story stickers or animated GIFs available for users on the platform. Some take the form of moving photos, cute cartoon characters, words, and more.
As a brand, you can market yourself with a series of Instagram business GIFs. As a matter of fact, creating animated GIFs for Instagram is quite easy – and this will be beneficial in several ways.
Increasing Brand Awareness
Providing IG story GIF stickers that everyone can relate to and like will increase awareness that your brand exists.
This way, you can spread unique GIF stickers and get the public wondering who you are.
This will lead a high number of them to search for your brand page and find out more. This engagement will drive traffic to your website and social media pages.
Subsequently, with higher traffic, you have a higher chance of converting them to sales.
You may be interested in: The Secret to Converting Website Visitors
Increase Your Follower Base
As a business, it helps to have a large follower base on your Instagram page.
If the public likes the GIF Instagram story you provide, they may follow your page expecting more fun and similar content.
This can lead to an increase in the number of people who follow your page – which also directly translates to more brand awareness!
Promote Events and Other Campaigns
Let’s say your brand is celebrating its anniversary with a free giveaway.
You can promote this event via Instagram GIF stickers and do the same to commemorate other important Malaysian festivities too.
Some examples of occasions that may be great to create GIF stickers may include Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Hari Deepavali, Malaysia Day, and more.
Step-by-Step: How To Make A GIF For Instagram To Increase Your Brand Awareness & Engagement
Before we learn how to make a regular GIF sticker, there are some important things to note.
Although there are many GIF platforms out there, Instagram stories have specifically collaborated with only one GIF stickers platform, which is Giphy.
This collaboration allows users on Instagram access to a pool of GIF option stickers to be used on Instagram stories.
Keeping that in mind, in order for you to make your branded GIF stickers available on Instagram stories, you will have to upload your GIF stickers to your Giphy account.
Step 1: Creating Animated GIFs
A social media GIF can be made on various platforms.
However, since you’re already supposed to be on Giphy for Instagram, it’s actually easier for you to create your regular GIF on a Giphy account straight away, especially if you’re a beginner.
To create Instagram GIF Stickers, start by signing up for a normal account. After being asked to verify your email, you can log in and search for the ‘Create’ button.
If you already have a GIF file that you made using another app, just go ahead and click ‘Upload’.
After you choose this, you’ll be given several options on what you want to create. Choose ‘Sticker’ and proceed to the next steps:
Once you click on the Sticker option, you will be able to create GIFs by uploading an image in several file formats, namely JPG or PNG.
Giphy will display your first image and ask you to cut out the parts you don’t want. Click on the lasso option and cut out the image that’s important.
In order for a regular GIF sticker to be accepted by Giphy, it has to have at least 20% empty space. You might also want to decide how many frames you would like your GIF to be.
The Lasso tool lets you cut out shapes in an irregular fashion, so you can cut out shapes to your own customized outline. Once you connect the lasso, the background will disappear.
If you’re not happy with what you’ve cut out, you can choose ‘Reset’ and start again. Once you’re satisfied with your cut-out image, you can click on ‘Continue to Animate’.
Here, you can bring your image to life by making it move around.
Giphy lets you play around and preview what’s best for your GIF sticker. Once you’re satisfied, you can choose ‘Continue to Upload’.
Before uploading, you will be asked to add tags to your GIF, and this part is important as these tags will be the ones used on your own stories later to find your branded GIF.
After uploading, the GIF file will now appear in your account.
Remember that all regular GIF stickers have to be reviewed by Giphy before they’re available for the public to use, and this might take some time.
The requirements for sticker approval can be found here.
Step 2: Signing Up For a Verified Brand or Artists Account
You should be noted that only Giphy GIFs from verified accounts are allowed to get featured on Instagram stories.
In order to apply for a verified account, you have to first sign up as a normal account.
Once you have uploaded at least 5 Instagram GIFs stickers on your normal account, you can then apply for a Brands and Artists account.
The requirements for an application are quite long and rather strict. You can read about the full requirements to apply for a verified Giphy account here.
In short, you will have to provide a legitimate domain, website, email, and more that matches up with one another.
Once you’ve filled out the application form, you’ll have to allow some time for your Instagram GIFS to be processed.
Upon approval, the hard part is over and now you can proceed to post GIFs for Instagram.
Step 3: Uploading Your Own Branded GIFs to Instagram Stories
Once you have a verified business account on Giphy, the sticker GIFs from your account will automatically be available to users on Instagram.
Do remember that you have to upload them as stickers for them to be available!
Also, do be reminded that before any of your GIF stickers can be available to the public, they have to be approved by Giphy first, as mentioned previously.
In short, your regular GIF stickers must:
- meet community guidelines
- be animated
- have at least 20% transparent background, among others.
Once you upload, it will take some time for Giphy to approve your GIF. However, once your branded stickers are approved, they will automatically be available on Instagram stories.
To test whether your GIFs are on Instagram stories, just open up your Instagram account and click the Post icon, which is a square with a small plus sign inside it.
After this, you can click ‘Story’ and choose any random picture in your gallery to post.
Now click the sticker icon and search for the tags you used on your GIF stickers when uploading to Giphy. Your sticker should appear when that tag is searched.
10 Practical Tips To Make Your GIFs Stand Out
There are tens of thousands of GIFs for Instagram available for Instagram stories.
In order to make your GIFs stickers for branding stand out and increase their visibility, why not try some of these strategies tested and proven effective by us, One Search Pro digital marketing Malaysia?
1. Make Some Emoticons
Similar to Instagram story games, one of the main reasons why people use and create GIFs in their Instagram stories is to express a specific emotion, especially those that can’t easily be expressed with words.
They can include shrugs, a wink, throwing hands up, being shy, and dancing excitedly.
Therefore, the GIFs you put up on Instagram stories should ideally include several that can help users express their emotions.
2. Use a Branded Graphic
Your sticker collection should include GIFs that are made with a regular GIF logo from your company or made with your brand’s mascot.
This way, you will be able to increase brand awareness and make more people curious about your brand.
3. Keep Up With The Trends
It’s important to know the latest memes and entertaining trends on social media. This would include places like TikTok and Twitter where various dances, challenges, and sounds will suddenly go viral.
Having Instagram stories GIFs featuring viral memes and current issues will gain your brand more attention for a certain season.
4. Hashtags Are The Most Important
Make sure you think thoroughly about the hashtags you attach to your animated GIF stickers.
It goes without saying that your brand name should be there, but you can also attach unique terms and words to promote certain events or products.
Tags are the main method by which users can discover your animated GIF stickers, so make sure you attach highly searched words to increase your chances of being seen too.
Related: Hashtag Trending Malaysia
Free Tools for Making GIFs for Instagram
The internet is full of free tools to help you in building custom GIFs for Instagram.
These tools that we’re about to recommend down below are user-friendly and have pretty intuitive user interfaces. Feel free to try them out to see which ones fit you the best.
| Tool Name | Description |
| Make a GIF | Allows you to create Instagram stories GIFs from social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook, as well as your own photos and videos. |
| GIF Brewery by Gfycat | An app by Gfycat specifically to create Instagram stories custom GIFs from videos, which can be from a screen recording, webcam, and your own camera. |
| Imgflip | Create animated GIF sticker for Instagram stories from any photo, video, or URL that you can store online. Comes with a preview option before you upload. |
| GIFPAL | Image-friendly online service with many filters and an option that makes creating Instagram GIF stickers easy. |
| Gifted Motion | A compact, light and easy-to-use open-source program with all the features that paid GIF makers have, including easy digital animation. |
Creating Your GIF for Instagram is Easy
Now that you understand how to make a GIF on Instagram, you should know that the process to create an animated GIF sticker for Instagram stories is actually very fun and easy.
It’s an activity that doesn’t require heavy training to start. Let us know in the comments section how you use your Instagram for your business.
If you would like to know how to improve your Instagram marketing or social media marketing strategy as a whole, don’t hesitate to contact us for an in-depth consultation.
Our consultants at One Search Pro Marketing Malaysia will be more than glad to assist you!
