The New Power of GIFs in Internal Communication
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- A GIF is a short sequence of images that cycles endlessly. It first appeared on the web in 1993 with the Mosaic browser and is now used as much to comment on the news as to congratulate a colleague.
- Inside companies, GIFs moved from informal exchanges into official channels: chat, enterprise social network, email.
- At Talkspirit, CEO Philippe Pinault reckons at least 80% of employees use GIFs for internal communication, an option opened as early as 2016.
- Their value is expressive: a GIF conveys an emotion without writing a line, which supports inclusion and lightens the tone of internal exchanges.
- They work better with three ground rules, where a GIF belongs and where it does not, how humour reads from one country to the next, and which images to share, set when the tool arrives.
Whether it’s Leonardo di Caprio toasting to your triumph, Justin Timberlake’s disappointment, or a standing ovation, GIFs have made a lasting mark on our communication methods, even in our professional channels. Talkspirit, the French enterprise social network, sheds light on this phenomenon.
Where GIFs come from
GIFs (short for graphics interchange format) are successions of images or short video sequences that cycle endlessly. They first appeared on the web in 1993, when the Mosaic web browser was the first to allow the integration of images, and thus GIFs, into web pages.
They gradually became a common, playful communication format, mostly through social networks, as a way to express emotions and feelings. Their audience is large: the two main animated image banks, Giphy and Tenor, are now wired straight into the message box of most team messaging tools, which has made the GIF as ordinary a gesture as the emoji.
Also read: How to implement an enterprise social network in your company
When GIFs take the complexity out of internal communication
Although they have traditionally been more at home in informal team communication, GIFs have gradually won their place inside companies, in day-to-day exchanges as well as in more formal channels. Whether in emails, chat or an enterprise social network, GIFs capture feelings and make them easy to share, and they put the accent on events worth marking.
“At Talkspirit, at least 80% of our employees use GIFs. Their use became possible as early as 2016. Everyone uses them to share good news, welcome a new employee, or comment on current events with a touch of humor. I regularly post a GIF to congratulate an employee, salute an initiative or share a good result,” says Talkspirit CEO Philippe Pinault.
For Delphine Michel, head of communications at EXTEAM, a consulting and digital engineering firm specialising in research, GIFs have become an integral part of the company. They are used regularly, especially to convey emotions or a strong message: “A picture is worth a thousand words, so a moving image… !”
Setting a frame for GIFs without switching them off
GIFs only become a problem when they arrive without any ground rules. Three usually do the job. Say where a GIF belongs, team channels, congratulations, informal announcements, and where it does not, crisis communication, sensitive announcements, reference documents. Remind everyone that the humour of an image does not read the same way from one country to the next, which matters as soon as an organisation works across several sites. And keep in mind that a GIF taken from a series or a film remains a protected work, which is an argument for using the image banks built into the tool rather than a file picked up elsewhere.
Those rules fit in a few lines of an internal communication charter, next to the ones on tone and response times. They are best set when the tool arrives, not once the habits have settled: see 4 steps to launch a new internal communication tool.
Give your internal communication a lift with Talkspirit
Plenty of internal communication tools let you share GIFs and add a lighter touch to your messages. Talkspirit is one of them: a French enterprise social network that makes information flow across the organisation. On Talkspirit, you highlight your news on a customisable home portal, and you keep the conversation going through chat messages and posts, which anyone can react to live, by sending a GIF, for instance.
GIF credits: tenor.com
In conclusion
The GIF is here to stay, at home as much as at work. It lets people express themselves without writing a line, which makes it both a lever for inclusion and a way to lighten the tone of internal communication. That is the real power of the GIF at work, provided a few ground rules travel with it.
– Authors: Sylvia Guirand, Benoît Renoul
FAQ
They first appeared on the web in 1993, when the Mosaic web browser was the first to allow the integration of images, and therefore GIFs, into web pages. GIFs are successions of images or short video sequences that cycle endlessly.
From the animated image banks wired into communication tools, mainly Giphy and Tenor. The two main banks are now plugged straight into the message box of most team messaging tools, which has made the GIF as ordinary a gesture as the emoji.
Talkspirit CEO Philippe Pinault says: "At Talkspirit, at least 80% of our employees use GIFs." Their use became possible as early as 2016, to share good news, welcome a new employee or comment on current events with a touch of humor.
Yes, alongside informal ones. GIFs travelled from day-to-day exchanges into more formal channels such as email, chat and the enterprise social network, where they capture feelings and mark events worth celebrating. The usual exceptions are crisis communication, sensitive announcements and reference documents.
For Delphine Michel, head of communications at EXTEAM, a consulting and digital engineering firm, GIFs have become an integral part of the company and are used regularly to convey emotions or a strong message: "A picture is worth a thousand words, so a moving image...!"
Yes, with a few ground rules rather than a ban. Say where a GIF belongs and where it does not (crisis communication, sensitive announcements, reference documents), remind everyone that the humour of an image does not read the same way from one country to the next, and use the image banks built into the tool rather than a file picked up elsewhere. Those rules fit in a few lines of an internal communication charter.
