A few weeks ago I had my 19 and 13 year old cousins over. As I am now in my 30s, I always look to them to hear what’s the latest in social media and especially how teens are interacting with technology. My 13 year-old cousin has, up until recently has been the YouTube king of our family, and at any family gathering we would literally sit around while he curated his favorite YouTube videos. This particular night, that conversation changed. Instead of YouTube, it was all about Vine.
From that day forward, I have become obsessed with Vine. When I say obsessed, I mean studying the platform, of course. 🙂 In the past, I have discussed Instagram vs Vine and have always held an pro Instagram mentality. However, after hours of daily Vine consumption, there are a lot of great things small businesses can do to utilize the platform and create relationships with it’s current users.
But before you can do that, you will need to know some basics.
What Is Vine
Vine is a mobile app that enables its users to create and post short videos. With around 40 million viewers, this network is one to watch. It’s owned by Twitter and, like Twitter, it forces its users to get to the point. Where Twitter gives you 140 characters, Vine gives you 6 seconds to create a video. Because it is owned by Twitter, you can watch the video directly in a Tweet when a Vine video is shared via Twitter. This makes sharing Vine videos more engaging than sharing other videos because you don’t have to leave Twitter to watch.
Who Is The Vine Audience
Vine has a young audience. If you scroll down the popular page, you will see that many of the popular users are in High School or College. If this is your audience, then you should run on over to Vine. It is definitely a network for the millennials, but as it grows it is likely to open up to an older audience as well. The younger audience tends to be the first on a trend and the early adapters.
Types Of Vine Videos
There are a lot of ways you can get in on the Vine movement. Like any network, you need to abide by the rules set in motion by its users. You will probably have the most success if you create the following types of videos. These seem to be the most popular at the moment.
Stop Motion
Skit
Singing/Music
Real-Life Happenings AKA #Relatable
Vine Vocabulary
Vine
Vine is the social network as a whole. But it is also one of the videos posted.
Example: I just created a Vine.
Vining
The act of creating a Vine, or being on Vine.
Example: Don’t bother me, I’m Vining.
Do It For The Vine
To do it for the Vine is to do something that others are doing just for the Vine audience. A lot of falling or acting ridiculous is done “for the Vine.”
Tag
To tag someone in the Vine. The person tagged will get a notification.
Re-Vine
To share a Vine
Like
When you like a Vine video.
Vine Famous
The popular kids of Vine.
SuperVine
When a bunch of people get together to make a Vine.
Remake
When you make a riff off a trend. It can also be a parody.
PROS And CONS
Con – Short
Pro – Built In Audience
Con – Vine Famous dominates
Pro – Ability to do product placement
Con – Short Shelf-Life
Pro- Short Shelf Life
How Businesses Can Use Vine
The benefit of using Vine is to get in front of its very active audience. There are two different ways to create a Vine presence and get your products and services out there.
1. User-Generated
Product Placement and giving the users the opportunity to create a video for you is the best way to advertise your brand on Vine. Because it comes from the Vine personality and not from the corporate persona the video better resonates with the audience. Furthermore, it is Influencer marketing at its best. Because that particular Vine user already has the trust of their followers, the message will be better received.
Wendy’s #6secondsflat was a contest that encouraged Viners to create videos promoting their new flatbread sandwiches. This was a very successful campaign.
Or there is this style. If Goya isn’t sponsoring this, they should be.
2. Brand Videos You can also have the messages coming from the brand’s account. Klondike uses Vine celebrities but posts from their own account. Because the Vine celebrities will share the video, it’s likely to become popular.
Or you can take an approach like this.
or like this.
Pro Tips
Use Hashtags
This is the best way to find a Vine video. Like hashtags on most networks, they are searchable and you can discover cool trends by doing a little Vine hashtag research. You might be able to find what others are hashtagging and jump in and create a video that way.
Promote In Real Time
Don’t just create a video on Vine and expect it to go viral. You need to promote everything you do. Share it on Facebook and Twitter. Post it to your newsletter. Blog about it (all Vines are embeddable). Get others to blog about it. The more you help get it out there, the more views it will get.
Make it Revine-able
Shareable content is always the best. On Vine, that’s content that people want to revine. There are less content creators than there are curators. So give those curators something to curate. 🙂
Use Vine To Post A Preview
Have longer content, post a preview to Vine and encourage users to check out the full length video at YouTube or perhaps on Instagram.
Here are some other ways other businesses are getting into the Vine game.
