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Creating a university-branded animated GIF library
Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing,
5
(4),
383-391
(2021)
Abstract
Graphics interchange format (GIFs) are the lingua franca of Twitter. They can express complex ideas and emotions that cannot fit into a Tweet, create humour and levity or add a personal touch to a reply. In higher education, we use them constantly to congratulate students when they have just been accepted, share the excitement of the school year starting or wish students luck on final exams. But why use pop culture GIFs when you can create your own university-branded ones? The University of Central Arkansas created its own library of branded GIFs and GIF stickers on GIPHY, a popular GIF-sharing platform that has generated almost 100 million GIF views in less than two years. In this paper, we will give you a tutorial on making GIFs, promoting a brand GIF library and evaluating the results.
Keywords: social media; marketing; GIFs; digital marketing; communications; Twitter; Instagram
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Jon-Stephen Stansel is a social media professional with almost a decade of experience managing and creating content for higher education, small businesses and government social media accounts. He has worked for the University of Central Arkansas, Texas State University, the Texas Department of Transportation, as well as consulting for many small businesses. He is also a cohost of the Thought Feeder Podcast, a weekly podcast offering insights into digital marketing in higher education. In addition, he has taught courses in social media management and presented at many national and international conferences including HighEd Web, the International Congress of Technological Innovation in Buenos Aires, and the Association of International Educators. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Radio and Television Production and a master’s degree in English both from Arkansas State University.
