Animation for Information on Blog Cover Images.

One of the key features that makes Google+ stand out from many other social media platforms is its native support for animated GIFs. Far from being trivial or gimmicky, animated GIFs can be powerful tools for online marketing and communications. They can convey much deeper and richer information than single static infographics and, unlike video, they do not require the the viewer actively choose to press play and hence can hook the viewer passively. As far as I am aware, anywhere you can upload photos to on Google+ you can also use animated GIFs, profile picture, banner, etc., apart from the cover image for Collections.

Likewise, Google's weblog publishing tool, Blogger (on which this blog has been built) also offers native support for GIFs and even the web banner on blogs can be animated. Same is true for WordPress built websites.

A newer platform called Carii also supports animated GIFs natively and can be used anywhere an image is uploaded. Interestingly, Carii has a carousel system where up to five images, files and videos can be uploaded to a single post. This makes things very interesting in regards to multi-media storytelling capabilities of Carii posts. Another interesting thing I discovered with Carii is with the platform's ability to very easily turn posts into email newsletters and, low and behold, the animations still work as part of the email version of the post too!