Vine – The Future Of Social Media Marketing?

What could you do with 6 seconds of video?

Is the exact question posed by Twitter when they released their video sharing service Vine in 2013. Since then Vine has captivated thousands of users who fill their 6 second time slot with whatever the hell they feel like. These range from explicitly voice dubbing Disney animations to a man eating a bowl of cereal whilst wearing a Unicorn mask (Each to their own).

Agreeably, Vine serves its comedic purposes and is a great way to kill some time. Others, however, have found ways to turn Vine into an extremely powerful marketing tool.

Let’s take Lowe’s Home improvement company for example; personally I don’t tend to spend my time looking at DIY products online. However, I found myself on Lowe’s website browsing away at what they had to offer. I was entertained, I was informed and I was intrigued to find out more. All thanks to their amazing Vine series. 

Lowe’s can be particularly commended because they have avoided a certain comedic tackiness that other ‘Viners’ have fallen foul of.

Here’s how you can use Vine to zoop-up your social media presence:

Take advantage of Twitter:

Vine integrates perfectly with FaceBook and Twitter; so your creations can be shared and retweeted just as any other tweet or post would be. 

Unlike Facebook, Twitter isn’t over-run with visual content, any moving image is immediately going to attract attention on an otherwise motionless feed. Make use of hashtags and brief descriptions to compliment your Vine and encourage people to interact. If nothing else, Vine will give you 6 seconds to advertise or describe your brand/product that Twitter’s 140 characters couldn’t.

Cause a commotion:

Make people talk about you. Or hey, talk to your audience. Use vine to be as interactive as possible to get people involved with your brand.

Use hashtags, be super imaginative and come up with a totally unique idea to generate mentions.

Word of mouth is an important asset.

Make people want to refer your content to a friend, generate that network of communication centred around your Vine. This isn’t easy to do but, trust me, it’s worth the effort.

Be big, be bold, be beautiful:

Wave goodbye to others who continue to rely entirely on Twitter cards and text based marketing.

Show off who you are or what your product can offer – you’d be surprised what you can fit into 6 seconds.

Give physical demonstrations of your product, be clever and technical to wow your audience with actions, be direct to inject your brand into the minds of your unsuspecting victims. There are so many options for you to exploit.

Become an online star:

Be entertaining, who knows; you could receive a fair amount of recognition.

Be aware of your brand image, if you’re trying to build a respectable business then you don’t share content that will damage your reputation. You can earn those retweets and shares by being imaginative and creative.

The better your videos, the more people are going to circulate your content. Who knows where it could land. Take Lowe’s as inspiration for this…