Hootsuite & GIFs | 6 Things You Should Know (Explained)

Often based on popular scenes from pop culture, Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) files are short snippets of images or video set to loop.

When posted on social media, they offer a lighthearted visual cue that can set the tone of your post and help you connect with followers.

GIFs and social media are a match made in heaven, so it’s no surprise that Hootsuite has made incorporating GIFs into posts easy for users.

Here’s What You Need to Know about Hootsuite and GIFs

GIFs are short clips of images that play on a loop. They help set a tone and add visuals to your social media posts, and Hootsuite can post them to compatible social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter. However, GIFs cannot be posted to Instagram or LinkedIn profiles via Hootsuite.

1. Does Hootsuite Work with Animated GIFs?

Hootsuite can post GIF files to your different social media profiles on your dashboard.

But not all kinds of social media profiles can handle GIFs.

For example, LinkedIn profiles cannot publish GIFs, while LinkedIn business pages can.

Read more here about Linkedin and Hootsuite issues.

2. How Do You Add GIFs with Hootsuite?

If you have a GIF file, you can click and drag it into the composer window of Hootsuite’s Dashboard.

But take note of the requirements of Hootsuite to accept GIF files.

• Your GIF file must be 5 megabytes at the most.
• It must have 350 frames or less and a resolution ranging from 120 by 120–1280 by 1080 pixels.
• The number of pixels must be at most 300 million. (This figure is derived by multiplying the width, height, and number of frames in the GIF file.)

But, take note also that while you can upload GIF files onto Hootsuite, not all social media platforms support GIFs. See Number 4 in this list for more information.

3. Can you schedule GIFs on Hootsuite?

Hootsuite allows the scheduling of GIF files, like any other social media post.

As long as the social media platform can accept GIFs, you can schedule your GIFs to be published whenever you like.

4. Are There Any Limitations with Hootsuite and the GIF Format?

There are some limitations when using GIFs with your social media profiles via Hootsuite.

• If you upload an animated GIF on Instagram via Hootsuite, the GIF will default into an image instead.
• You also cannot upload GIFs to your personal LinkedIn profile. The feature for GIF publishing is limited to business pages on LinkedIn.
• If you plan to send your GIF to Twitter, your file should not be more than 5 MB.

5. Can You Use GIPHY with Hootsuite?

You can use GIPHY with Hootsuite by using the media library function in the composer.

• When you create a new post, open the media library and select GIPHY as the media source.
• Then look for the GIF you want to use by adding keywords in the search bar.
• You can now post your chosen GIF.

6. How Do You Create a GIF for Hootsuite?

We’ve detailed the two easiest ways to make a GIF here.

Making a GIF in Adobe Photoshop

Here are the steps to making a GIF from photos in Adobe Photoshop:

• In Photoshop, click on File, look for Stack, then click on Load Files.
• Click on Browse, then choose the photos (or “layers”) for the GIF. You can save time when selecting multiple files by pressing Shift when you select the files. (To help you make the loading of files easier, number the file names of the images so you can easily see their order.)
• Once you have loaded the files, go to the Timeline options under the Window menu.
• You will see a small box below the first image of your GIF animation sequence with a drop-down menu set to Create Video Timeline. Set it to Create Frame Animation.

After this step, you will need to convert the photo layers into looping animation frames.

• On the upper right corner of the Timeline window, click the menu icon (the three lines). Scroll down and select Make Frames From Layers.
• The Timeline will then show you the animation frames in order. You may choose to move the frames around to fix the sequence.
• You can press the play button to preview your GIF. On the left side, there is a drop-down menu that lets you choose the looping frequency. Set it to Forever.

Now you need to save your new GIF.

• Export your GIF by going to the File menu, select Export, and Save for Web (Legacy).
• A window will appear that allows you to tweak the final output of your GIF.
• On the Preset menu, click GIF 128 Dithered. Then change the Colors setting to 256, which is the most number of colors allowed for a GIF.
• You can click on preview in the lower-left corner, wherein you can view the GIF.
• Click on Save and give your GIF file a name, which will then save on your computer.

Here is how to make a GIF from a video in Adobe Photoshop:

• Go to File, then Import, and select Video Frames to Layers.
• You will be asked to select which part of the video you want to use for the GIF. You can adjust the slider to choose which part of the video you want to use.
• Then, input how many frames you want to import. You do not need to import every single frame, as this will make the final output very large. You can opt to skip some frames, but if you want a smooth animation, do not scrimp too much on the frames.
• Once loaded, you can now export this sequence into a GIF by clicking on Save For Web under the File menu.

Follow the steps for saving GIFs in the section above to complete the GIF.

Note that these steps are based on Adobe Photoshop CC 2018.

Making a GIF from a YouTube video

If you don’t have access to Adobe Photoshop, you can still turn a video clip into a GIF using YouTube, then convert it with GIPHY.

• Find the clip you want to use to make a GIF on YouTube or upload the video clip you wish to make a GIF out of to YouTube. Make sure the settings are not private so that GIPHY can find it.
• Then go to GIPHY.com and click on the Create button.
• Paste the URL of the video you plan to turn into a GIF.
• Select the segment you want to use for the GIF. From here, you can add texts, filters, or other decorations to help enhance the design. You can also add hashtags in the information section so that other people can look up your GIF.
• Once you are finished, click on upload.
• Your GIF is now searchable on GIPHY.

If you want to add your GIF to your posts on social media, paste the link or download the GIF and add it to the Hootsuite composer.

Final Thoughts

GIFs are here to stay in this era of social media, and they’re great for spicing up engagement with your followers. GIFs can help get your point across and express a sentiment, and they’re a great way to get your followers to respond.

 

Sources:

Hootsuite – Work with images

How to Make a GIF: 4 Tried-and-True Methods