Dive Brief:
- Facebook has finally added animated gifs to its list of features, shedding its title as the last of the major social networks to support the short, silent-loop videos.
- Gifs, which have become a huge part of online communication, are however not yet available to marketers for brand pages on Facebook.
- For brands, gifs provide a fresh, lightweight way of connecting with consumers, as they have done on other social media like Twitter and Google+.
Dive Insight:
With the success of auto-play videos, which hit 4 billion daily views in April, adding animated gifs to Facebook's lineup of features seems obvious. But the popularity of auto-play videos could be the exact reason Facebook has been hesitant to introduce a second auto-animation feature. Facebook also has to figure out how to monetize gifs. Video ad sales have helped Facebook to blow away analyst predictions for revenue since the auto-play videos were introduced.
Brands have embraced digital conversations trends (think emojis) to remain current. And with the animated gif, there's potential for Facebook to boost revenue if it incorporates the feature into promoted posts. But first, it has to flip the switch on for brands to be able to use the gifs.
