A Guide to Animation and Motion Design for Social Media

What started as a space to connect with friends and family has now grown to something beyond just liking their pictures or wishing them on their birthdays.

Social media has become an integral part of everyone's life today, and this includes your existing and potential customers. A whopping 82% of the population in the United States has a social networking profile - that’s 223 million social media users and a figure hard to ignore as marketers.

However, social media marketing can be tricky, so being creative definitely pays off. Having to deal with the short attention span of people scouring social media, marketers are tasked with creating posts that can catch their eye. This is why using motion design in social media marketing can benefit brands greatly as motion allows content that is easy to consume.

Use of video among social media marketers

In fact, Statista conducted a global survey of social media marketers in 2022, and found that 68% were planning to increase their video activities on Instagram in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 67% were planning to use YouTube, followed by Facebook (56%).

As one of the fastest-growing digital advertising and branding tools, social media can benefit a brand greatly if tapped correctly - especially with animation in social media.

Using motion design in social media marketing

Motion graphics are basically animated graphic design elements. Using motion design in your social media content calendar gives you the power to convey your message faster, compared to a copy in a static image. It is also eye-catching and could be the key to stopping a person scrolling through their feed.

This matters because according to Facebook, people are spending an average of 1.7 seconds with a piece of content on mobile and 2.5 seconds via desktop - that’s an extremely teeny tiny window of time to capture your audience’s attention!

Animated social media posts typically come in the form of GIFs or videos. The latter - video content - is on the rise. Statistics from 2021 state that YouTube was the preferred social media platform for short-form videos with 77.9%, followed by Facebook (60.8%), TikTok (53.9%) and Instagram (52.4%). With this, it’s pretty clear that videos, especially short-form versions, are a powerful tool to spread the word about your brand.

Now, here are some real-life examples of how you can use animated social media posts.

Drive excitement for upcoming events

Animation is great for creating buzz for upcoming events. Instead of using a static copy and squeezing all your event details in one image, animation gives you the flexibility to add more information. It also conveys your message faster!

If you scroll through Samsung’s Instagram feed, you’d find that they love animated social media posts. You’ll see it in everything from festive wishes to communicating new launches. This one in particular uses more copy to drive anticipation for their sustainability keynote.

Communicate your brand values

Brand building is important but then again, there’s only so much that you can squeeze into an image. Using animation in social media content calendar allows you to communicate your brand values in a fun and more engaging way.

Nike posted about pushing the boundaries of sustainable innovation using motion graphics. Using an animated social media post, the brand narrates a story on why they create solutions for people that are planet-friendly. The posts use bright colors which are eye-catching to stop anyone in their feed-scrolling tracks.

Focus on your message’s key elements

Sometimes the simplest form of animation in social media is equally as effective. You can animate key objects or a hero image to emphasize its copy.

Uber and Uber Eats have done just that. To introduce their feature that allows pets to ride together with their owners, Uber emphasizes their copy with motion graphic elements that just move slightly up and down. Using motion, coupled with clear messaging, it’s easier to attract attention compared to if it were static.

Create animated tutorial videos

Using animation for product tutorials or guides are extremely helpful for the user, as the motion graphics help showcase certain actions or emphasize important elements. Plus, brand-wise, it can be less costly compared to using real-life talents that might come off looking like a commercial.

If you check out Grubhub’s YouTube, a lot of their how-to videos utilize motion graphics. With text and the addition of a voiceover, the use of motion makes it easy to understand.

Here, AT&T turns infographics into an animated version to explain how their AT&T Cargo View monitors shipments in the air. This is an example of a longer form content that you can use on YouTube to explain concepts or your product in more detail.

Use animation for festive greetings

Festive greetings are always part of the social media calendar. But instead of a static image, try out animation for a fun twist.

Instead of a boring static greeting, Skype has used simple firework animation that plays with different colors. This is a great way to turn the usual festive wish into something more fun and noticeable.

Celebrate your brand’s successes

Communicating your milestones is just as important as promoting your product - it builds trust among consumers and improves your brand image.

However, a single graphic image post with a bunch of statistics isn’t exactly the most attractive to consumers. With animation, you can add on fun animation to keep them more engaged.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of their Zoom Community launch, Zoom uses motion design in their Facebook post to commemorate the occasion with quick statistics on the usage of the product.

Announce new product features

Social media is also a platform to communicate any product updates. For extensive product updates, using animation is strategic to add in all the information in one video. It is also easier for the consumer to digest.

To update their users on their new privacy feature, WhatsApp has used Instagram as a platform to communicate this. With an animated social media post, the post uses mostly text to explain the updates, while the icon changes with every introduction of a new feature.

Tips on creating better animated social media posts

a) Use your brand colors

To improve brand recall, don’t use too many colors, especially tones that are outside of your brand's color palette. Sticking to your brand’s identity helps brand recalls, so make sure to keep it to your brand colors and style.

b) Use text effectively

Motion graphics largely use text to convey messages. However, make sure to not overcrowd a scene with too much text. Remember, motion design in social media should be quick and easy to consume. So, keep it to the main messaging, and anything else you need to convey, you can always put it in your social caption.

c) Add a voiceover

Using voiceover, along with text and motion graphics can emphasize your messaging. It helps narrate the graphics better and you have more room to tell your story.

d) Use the right tools

Motion graphics might seem like it takes a lot of a designer’s time, however, with the right tools it can quicken the process up. You can use Lottie animation with easy design tools such as Canva - check out this guide on how you can animate your Canva designs with Lottie animation.

Social media animation specifications cheat sheet

Marketers know that social media has its own dimensions and it can differ when it comes to animated or motion posts.

So, we’ve done the digging for you on the video dimensions for Facebook, Instagram, YoutTube and Linkedin.  But take note that these are dimensions for organic video posts - ads may have different guidelines to follow.

How to add motion design to social media posts with Lottie animation

Now, how can you add motion into your social media? It can be pretty simple, especially when you use a Lottie animation. With Lottie, you have access to free customizable animations that you can use for your social media marketing.

Here’s how you can download a Lottie to start creating your animated social posts. You can do it on the web, or on mobile with the LottieFiles Mobile App.

On the web

• Browse through our free collection of Lottie animations.
• Click on any animation.
• If you’d like, apply your own brand colors to the animation with the Color Palette feature.
• Most social media platforms allow you to upload animations in the form of GIFs or videos. So hit the download button to download the Lottie animation as a GIF or MP4 file.

• Upload the file to your favorite social media platform. Add a snazzy caption, then hit publish!

On mobile

• Go to the LottieFiles Mobile App and search for animations. Tap on any animation.

• Hit the share button.

• Select the social media platform you’d like to share the animation to.

• Tap on Start Recording for the app to capture the animation.

• And that’s it! If you’re posting on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, you can add other elements like text or stickers.

For specific social media platforms, here are additional resources to check out on how to add Lottie animation:

• How to create animated TikTok videos with the LottieFiles Mobile App
• How to create animated Instagram stories with the LottieFiles Mobile App
• How to animate your social media posts in Canva

Get started on animated social media posts with Lottie

You can use Lottie animation on every social media platform. What makes it fascinating is that anybody without any design or coding skills can now add motion to their marketing materials and create engaging content for their customers.

We encourage you to check out our free collection of Lottie animations or check out the Lottie animations on IconScout to add motion design into your social media marketing strategy. With that, we do hope you try out motion design on your social media and we’re pretty sure you’ll get great results with it!