Using GIFs for Health Communication - CDC Flu Case Study

Why use animated GIFs?

Animated GIFs can be far more engaging than static images. CoSchedule reports that tweets with GIFs get 167% more click-throughs than tweets with static images, and according to Insight Pool, sharing a post with a GIF increased the engagement rate 20% for B2C brands. Social Media Today says tweets with GIFs generate 6X more engagement than tweets with basic text updates, and are 3X as likely to be retweeted than tweets with images.

GIFs can backfire, though. The folks at Hootsuite advise against posting GIFs that are out of context, too casual, or overly branded. They also recommend using GIFs to advertise sales and events, feature products, visualize data, and share instructional content. You can check out Hootsuite's Ultimate GIF Guide for Social Media Marketers for more insights and tips.

Are you thinking about creating animated GIFs for health communication?

Take a look at these animated GIFs from the #FluTip series posted by @CDCFlu on Twitter.

Handwashing GIF

#FluTip: Help stop the spread of flu viruses at home, work and school with these 6 health habits: https://t.co/8Sc7GaIUV6 pic.twitter.com/b2JqP7SWXL

— CDC Flu (@CDCFlu) January 19, 2018

This GIF earned @CDCFlu 180 retweets, 132 likes, and 2 comments.

• How this works: It's highly relevant to the text update, and is timely (given flu rates). The animation is also simple: It demonstrates one health behavior and reinforces that behavior with the GIF copy.
• When it works: This is a great creative asset for modeling a desired health behavior. ​

Stay Home GIF

#FluTip: Sick with #flu? Stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone, except if you need medical care. https://t.co/pGrHlkRexy pic.twitter.com/B42CeBiSip

— CDC Flu (@CDCFlu) January 17, 2018

This GIF earned @CDCFlu 612 retweets, 470 likes, and 20 comments.

• How this works: Again, it's highly relevant and timely, and demonstrates one health behavior.
• When it works: This is also a great creative asset for modeling a desired health behavior. Extra bonus: The extended copy provides the context of flu in the GIF. This way, if the GIF is posted by someone else, it doesn't lose its intended meaning.  ​

Antiviral Treatment GIF

#FluTip: Studies show #flu antiviral treatments work best when started within 2 days of getting sick. However, starting them later can still be helpful. Follow your doctor’s instructions. https://t.co/yVCKsxgATz pic.twitter.com/GAvb7Sir64

— CDC Flu (@CDCFlu) January 23, 2018

This GIF earned @CDCFlu 73 retweets, 65 likes, and 3 comments.

• How this works: Again, it's highly relevant and timely. It has a simple ask: Do a health behavior. 
• When it works: This is a creative way to take something that could easily be a static image and add a touch of animation. It does not, however, model a behavior.

The antiviral treatment GIF had the lowest total engagement. It must be noted that we are comparing apples and oranges, in the sense that we don't know how many people viewed each post (reach) or how many times each post was viewed  (impressions). Without those denominators, we can't definitively say which post performed best. The stark difference in the total engagement between the posts that modeled a behavior and the one post that did not, however, does raise some questions. Is the animation in behavior change and social marketing GIFs better when used for demonstrating a behavior? Is animation distracting when it involves only text elements and does not model a behavior/action? 

Leave a comment or share your thoughts with us on social media (we're @LTPHmedia on Facebook and Twitter).

By: Monique Thornton, MPH

About the Author

Founder and CEO at Let's Talk Public Health. I'm a public health communication and marketing professional fusing creative writing, health communication, public health, and behavior change theory. Let's talk social and digital media, edutainment, product development, and digital health.