- Have you heard of ‘Vine’?
- Would you like to know how it can improve the relationship between you and your customers?
Vine was launced by Twitter in January, and is a video sharing medium which allows you to record and broadcast a video lasting no more than 6 seconds. The time limitation is intentional so that similarly to Twitters’ own 140 character limitation, you are forced to be brief, get to the point and ideally be more creative in your message. The creative nature of these videos can be inspiring and intriguing to the viewer, in turn encouraging them to interact or find out more about your brand. The videos are set up so that they loop and also initially the sound is muted which encourages both interactivity with the audience and also allows your video to be sent to more viewers without causing any noise problems. In fact, if promoted and made well, your Vine video could very quickly go viral, becoming the topic of conversation around more than just your normal brand’s audience.
What makes Vine extra popular is that is that it operates via a mobile phone app so can be recorded and broadcast on the move. It discourages too much planning and editing but at the same time makes you as a company really think about what elements of your product or brand appeal to your audience. The best way to appreciate this is to look at some examples for yourself.
- ASOS – this is a really simple but very effective video from ASOS which really captures what they do and the positive experience their customer gets from buying from them.
- SEAT – one of many vines sent into to Seat to promote their car.
- Costa Coffee– this one is entitled, have fun with Costa Coffee. Shows someone playing around with different sized coffee cups.
- Cadburys – an example of how effective Vine is for promoting food products. This is the new "Egg n’ Spoon" from Cadburys
As you can see, even the simplest of videos on Vine can put across a very memorable and important branding message. Many videos, mainly due to the time limitation are animated to a point. This can be fun, inviting, themed and different all at the same time. Another major advantage of Vine is that it is the perfect platform, like Twitter for posting last minute and time-relevant or topical posts with very little planning or production time involved. You can if you want dedicate a large production budget to your videos but, especially in the beginning it is really not necessary with in-house or amateur animation or video production technicians readily available for a low cost. In fact, it’s the amateur nature of many of the videos that make them appealing. You can also hashtag (#) your videos to make them appear more quickly in users searches.
Despite only being around for such a short period of time, there are already resources available (such as Simply Measured) to guage how effective your Vine videos are in terms of who has viewed them, for how long and how big (number and reach) your audience is.
So what are you waiting for? It’s easy to use, it’s fun, and it’s free! Why not download Vine today (go to: http://vine.co/) and see for yourself how effective it is!
