A LITTLE ABOUT GIPHY

Giphy is a free platform for creators that allows you to make custom video clip content for marketing purposes, or just for fun. You can use Giphy both personally & professionally. A standard account keeps your content private but downloadable for texting, personal newsletters, etc. while a brand account makes your content public & searchable.

CREATING YOUR GIPHY ACCOUNT

First, go to giphy.com & sign up for an account using your custom business address (example@mycustomdomain.com). NOTE: You must have a custom domain name to be approved for a brand or creator account. Next, completely fill out the account bio section as much as you possibly can. This will show giphy that you are a reputable company & are preparing to create quality content. Using the directions provided below, create five GIFs or stickers. These need to be as consistent as possible to show Giphy that you plan to post specific brand content. For example, I personally took 5 Boomerang videos that all had me in them & turned them into GIFs. Having my face in each one showed Giphy consistency. You can also do this with several stickers that have your brand name in them. Upload these stickers to Giphy & be sure to tag them applicably! This means tagging them with very specific wording. You need to find a phrase or word that very few others (or even no one else) is using so that you can locate your GIFs & stickers when you're in instagram. (*You can also locate your stickers on instagram by typing in your username, ex. amyeriordan.*) Lastly, double check the application requirements HERE, as they may change. One you’ve done all of the above, you can apply for a brand account HERE.

What's the difference between a Giphy brand & an artist account?

Brand accounts are for businesses that want custom stickers to market themselves; artist accounts are for artists that want to share their artwork for others to use. 

MAKING GIFS
To start, making GIFs can be the easiest, because you can use videos & boomerangs already recorded on your phone & upload them straight to Giphy. These should all be similar clips; meaning they should have the same person in them, the same brand name or something all in common that has to do with your business. 

MAKING STICKERS

Stickers are a little more complicated, & can be created using the free platform Canva. Not only does Canva have GIF templates you can use & download, but they also have the ability for you to create a series of pages that can animate into a GIF. Watch This YouTube Video for the full overview. 

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Amy Riordan is a Coeur d'Alene Commercial Photographer & FAA Certified Drone Pilot specializing in helping small businesses succeed in online media. She is also a proud wife, dog mom, writer & runner.

***NOTE FROM KCYP***

Amy is sharing her wisdom with a Social Media Bootcamp on April 5th! At the time of posting this article, Amy's Social Media Bootcamp is just a couple weeks away! Click HERE to register - space is limited!