New Kid on the Block

Have you heard of Vine? It’s a new social media property from the good  people at Twitter. It’s an interesting twist on the micro blog phenomenon and will be fun to watch it’s development.  I remember when Twitter was new, many people were questioning the value of a 140 character blog and dismissed it’s value … well this time around there seems to be a much faster “lets jump on the band wagon” attitude. It’s an intriguing attempt to grab attention in our short attention span society.

Vine – the Basics

So what is Vine?  It’s a micro blog for video … 6 second looping video with the same ease of publishing to your Twitter followers as a 140 character tweet. Or as the Vine site itself says …
“Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see”.  If you are still wondering “why”, consider the addition of Instagram by Facebook … it follows much the same logic … expansion of the engagement quotient. Twitter is expanding beyond text and taking the micro idea to video, expanding how people engage in the micro format.

Exploring the Vine

While it’s early yet, Vine has compiled quite a few business posts, which indicate companies see value and aren’t content with waiting on the sidelines as they did with Twitter.

So how should we consider Vine as we look to add it to our toolbox of web properties … and use it to help our company’s business?

First things first … let’s examine the app:

• 6 second looping video
• Population: Twitter followers
• Easy to create and post
• Open to the public (all Vines and Profiles are public)
• Can be posted to Facebook (with similar Twitter restrictions)
• It’s new so it has the “cool” feature
• iPhone/iTouch app only currently (Android in the wings)
• Three-person engineering team (be patient for updates, but they are looking to hire more developers!)
• It’s new (expect hiccups and frequent updates)

The last point is not to be taken lightly, when considering this for your company’s use, especially for any B2B (business to business). Case in point, it didn’t take long for  pornographic clips hit to the service. Luckily the latest release (1.0.5) has added a “17+” rating, but these are the things to consider with something so new.

Still I think it has some interesting characteristics that play well in certain circumstances, and can certainly spur creativity. Think about the challenge … “I only have 6 seconds to get my point across” …

Creating Your Plan

In preparing your action plan for testing this new platform, many of the same goals and metrics used for other web properties can be leveraged, and the same cautions.

• It should be part of your broader social media plan (integrate it into your other properties)
• Support and reinforce your Brand
• Should drive traffic to your website (where your call to actions live)
• Should be used where it fits (not just because I have it!)
• Image rights will be needed
• Measure and track activity (ROI is still important!)
• Manage for freshness of content (if you don’t have the time, don’t start)

Leveraging the Unique Qualities

So what are some the items to keep in mind as you are planning your video?

• Remember, it’s only 6 seconds!
• The message must be clear, crisp and succinct
• The content should be easy to see (no far away shots,  good contrasting colors, large type)
• If music, it shouldn’t be distracting or too loud
• Content should be your own (this should be apparent, but thought I should mention it!)
• The size, since a large majority of viewers will be on smartphones
• Have some fun (but avoid being careless or just plain stupid)

Interested? – More on Vine

• Learn about Vine : https://vine.co/blog
• A good walk through of using Vine : PCMAG article
• Here is an interesting article to stir the creative juices:
  Tribeca Film Festival : 10 Artists To Follow On Vine

Exploring some early Business Vines (one’s I thought were interesting)

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