Emojis & GIFs – They’re a Real Thing
Happy Sunday everyone! As I was doing my usual Twitter browsing (follow me here), I came across yet another interesting perspective on Emojis and GIFs. Following with the usual trend, a writer at TheNextWeb published an article about his perspective on the whole “Emoji & GIF Craze.” Written by Martin Bryant, the article goes on to discuss his point of view on how he previously viewed Emojis & GIFs, and how his viewpoint on them has changed since. To read the full article, click here.
It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that it’s okay if we use fewer words, but now I’m a flag-flying enthusiast. – Martin Bryant, Editor-in-Chief at The Next Web
Martin describes how when the whole GIF/EMOJI/STICKER craze was first popping up, he felt that they were just overbearing, and out-right childish. He even notes, that when his colleagues first started sending them to him, he felt that he should respond back with ‘just send me words, we’re not babies.’ However, as he continued to be exposed to them, his outlook on them changed. What was more interesting was how a simple team messaging platform, made him view them differently. That platform, was SLACK. For those who are unaware of Slack, it is a platform that allows for complete team messaging. Whether on mobile or desktop, Slack allows for seamless messaging between team members. It’s a mobile messaging platform, but catered towards team communities. It was thanks in part to TNW using Slack, that he found a purpose (and enjoyment) for using GIFs. Oh, it also helped that Slack integrates with GIPHY, the King of GIFs :).
Suddenly, it was fun to respond to the sales team saying “we just signed a big deal” by writing ‘/giphy woohoo‘ and seeing what animation Giphy would come back to illustrate the word ‘woohoo.’
What’s more interesting, is his stance on ‘copy righted’ material, when searching for GIFs on GIPHY. He notes that a lot of the GIFs on the platform, are copyrighted material. He goes on to question ‘when is it fair use’ to use copyrighted material based off of the DMCA regulations? However, neither here nor there, brands and users a like, are sharing GIFS/EMOJIS/STICKERS everywhere. Because of this, it seems as though brands are allowing the use of their copyrighted material, because in essence, it is free marketing shared across a massive audience (Over 1B+ people around the world use a messaging service). But even if all these GIFs are being created, it all comes down to the age old question of “quality content.” Martin goes into this as well, as he has now moved onto ‘finding the right GIF’ to insert into his conversations.
This is something that is very important to me. Because of this, my co-founders and I created STKR.us. We firmly believe in quality over quantity. Creating quality Stickers and GIFs is key, as our end users need to have relevant content available to use on-the-go. Without the ‘right’ content, everything becomes cluttered and the purpose of your platform disappears. At STKR, our goal is to continue making quality STKRS and GIFs, so that our users can not only enjoy them, but have them readily available at the right time, and right moment.
Swag STKR via http://stkr.us
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