How to Use GIFs on Twitter: A Step by Step Guide



How to Use GIFs on Twitter: A Step by Step Guide

Animated GIFs have most certainly become a massively popular form of communication and for good reasons. Here are just a few of them:

  • GIFs tell stories better than standard still images
  • GIFs will grab your user’s attention instantly, thus attracting more attention to your content
  • GIFs will help you to engage their reactions and emotions more effectively
  • Unlike long videos, GIFs get the point across automatically, silently and in a mere matter of seconds before they loops back to the beginning.

Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) first introduced the ability to share animated GIFs in 2014 and since then they have been used millions of times to pass along messages.




Win $100 for Vendor Insights



Drive Traffic to Your Website



Sell Your Business



How to Use GIFs on Twitter

Creating GIFs for Twitter

There are two ways that you can create GIFs on Twitter. The first method is to create your own GIF using either Photoshop, GIFBrewery, GIFBoom or even a free service like GIFSoup, which allows users to make GIFs from YouTube videos.

If you are not up to creating your GIF from scratch, you can find GIFs online from websites such as Giphy. Choose your preferred GIF and save it to your computer. Once you are ready to share, compose a new tweet, click add photo and post away.



Use Twitter GIFs

A second and relatively easier way to share GIFs on Twitter is to click the tweet composer and look for the little GIF icon between the photo/video camera icon and the poll icon.

How to Use GIFs on Twitter: Using Twitter GIFs

Click the GIF icon to reveal the different GIF categories available.

Use Search Function to Find a Specific GIF

If you can’t find the perfect GIF in the available categories, enter your keywords in the search box.



As an example, here’s a search for cars.

How to Use GIFs on Twitter: Searching for a Specific GIF

Click on your preferred GIF to automatically add it to you tweet. If you would like to discard it, click the “X” on the top right to delete it.

You can accompany the GIF with a caption and you are ready to tweet.



Once you post it, your  GIF will show up inline on your profile feed and in the home feed of users that follow you.

Tweet Photo via Shutterstock


More in: 2 Comments ▼

Antony Maina Antony Maina is a Staff Writer for Small Business Trends. His beat includes social media, general business reporting and exploring how people relate to technology. With a background in freelance writing, he is a contributor to other tech websites and can be found at Word4Bloggers.

2 Reactions
  1. Hello Antony

    Thanks for this great and informative post. Using gifs on Twitter is really a cool stuff. I really like it.

  2. It seems that Twitter is slowly incorporating visual media into its channel. It seems that it is competing with the other visual social networks such as Instagram or Pinterest.





Win $100 for Vendor Selection Insights



Tell us!
No, Thank You