Four Months Later, Vine Is Earning Its Keep [VIDEO]

When Vine was first announced in late January, the initial reaction was lukewarm and filled with uncertainty about what it would mean for marketers and brands as they attempted to weave to the videos into their social marketing mix. But time has shown the tool can provide a good change of pace and be an effective engagement tactic for any brand. One of the most compelling reasons that brands should pay attention to Vine is recent research has shown that branded Vines are shared four times more often than branded online videos. The key here is sharing – aside from some examples like K-mart’s hilarious commercials that have gotten a lot of attention lately, fans may be reluctant to share full-length videos – they don’t want to look like shills to their friends, colleagues, or families. Vine, on the other hand, is likely less disruptive to fan’s Tweeting habits, with the short videos capturing the same amount of attention as a 140 character tweet. They load quickly, and get to the point right away - a perfectly digestible nugget of content. The sharing also goes both ways, and Vine makes it easy for fans to share videos with brands as well. Marketers are seeing a lot of value in Vine too, especially smaller brands that may not have a widespread following or deep pockets for traditional channels. Fashion brand French Connection has had great success with their stop-motion videos and aims for the front page of Vine’s feed, which gets more than 40,000 unique views every day. While likes and shares are likely to be “only” in the hundreds – the organic nature of the content ensures it hits its target. Any way you slice it, Vine is definitely a great addition to any brand’s social toolbox. Just a keep a few basic rules in mind: Fresh & simple content – don’t try to pack too much into one video, and posting Vines more frequently is better than posting the most attractive content. Find a genuine connection – easier said than done right? But video and sound gives depth that a picture can’t. Also, nobody can resist puppies. Looping is key – creating a seamless loop can make a 6-second video go on for 12, or 18, or 24, or…. You get the idea – the better the video – the longer the engagement! Stop it up – photographers are getting between 120 and 160 frames in to some stop-motion videos, but even a dozen simple shots can tell a great story Now that brands have suffered through a few months of experimentation, it’s clear that Vine fills a niche within the social media sphere. It’s not going to win over followers on its own, but it’s a great way to spice up a boring Twitter feed with sights and sounds that may otherwise go unnoticed. Hopefully marketers continue to develop innovative new ways to bring great content to their followers in this fun new format. Eric Sevick is a Senior Analyst at Zócalo Group, an award-winning word-of-mouth, social and digital marketing agency in Chicago. Find him on Twitter @ericsevick. (Image from Shutterstock)

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Four Months Later, Vine Is Earning Its Keep [VIDEO]

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