Should Your Brand Be On Vine?

Vine is like the Twitter of YouTube. Both have restrictions on what used to be long-form mediums – in Twitter’s case, it’s character limit; in Vine’s case, it’s the number of seconds your video is allowed to be (it’s six, by the way). You may be wondering what these little video snippets can do for your brand, or why you should invest into a Vine profile of your own. Read on to see whether you and your business are ready to harness Vine’s power.

1. What demographic are you targeting?

Vine is great when it comes to capturing a younger audience, and attracting them to your brand. One study reveals that the largest group within the estimated 40 million users who have downloaded the app is those who are ages 18-20. Another report shows that, as of 2015, 24% of teenagers are on Vine’s platform. If you’re a brand that craves exposure to a younger demographic, or if your brand wants to solidify its engagement with a more youthful audience, Vine might be for you.

2. Are you prepared to storyboard?

The tricky thing about Vine is that you have to record your Vine in real time. In other words, you can pause between chunks of your recording – creating cool effects like making scene changes in the middle of videos. But you can’t film one part of a Vine, save it, and then upload the other parts on a different day once you’ve gotten them. If you have a clear creative vision for Vines that can be planned and filmed in one sitting, the platform is for you. Pro tip: storyboard your vines and establish clear parts to film.

3. What are your goals?

If you want to film a long informational video, YouTube is probably more of the platform for you. (See my previous post about how to create a fabulous YouTube channel if you’re looking for tips!) But Vine is great for:

• Quick how-tos, including recipes if you’re a food-related brand
• Snapshots of “days in the life” of using your product
• Product announcements or breaking news – but they have to be creative and presented in an eye-catching way
• User contests – to really ramp up engagement, you can announce a contest, to which users can submit by tagging their videos with your brand’s hashtag

The major caveat of Vine is that there is a growing flood of visual content. Video traffic is predicted to comprise 55% of internet traffic by 2016. In order to capture your audience’s attention, your overall goal should be to push the creative envelope while conducting the strategies listed above.

4. Do you like to measure?

Vine has some interesting statistics to measure engagement that are different from other social media platforms. With Vine, you see how many people have liked your Vines. But in addition to that, you can get a count of how many times each user has “looped” (re-watched) the videos as well. Along with comments and revines (when a user shares your vine to their own profile, analogous to a retweet), Vine’s metrics let you gauge how well you’re doing and with whom.

If you read these tips while nodding and saying, “hey, I could do that!,” then you’re ready for Vine.

Be sure to leave your Vine tips and tricks in the comments below!

Amanda Loewy
Marketing Coordinator

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