6 Ways For Your Brand To Dominate Vine

February 28, 2013

Vine

Vine, a new app from Twitter, is a social media platform that combines all of the best elements of gifs and videos. You might remember my prediction that a mobile network based around gifs would be the next big social network – with Vine, which allows users to create short, looping videos, I’d consider my prediction a half-success.

Vine presents another great content opportunity for brands, and, best of all, it does it at no extra cost tax to their current resources. It’s tight integration with Twitter means you’ve already got a built in community, and gives it the rapidly-disappearing prestige of being one of Twitter’s multimedia cards – you might remember Instagram losing this particular honor. That means they can be featured in Twitter’s embedded tweets. Additionally, it’s low budget by nature – viewers aren’t expecting the high-quality polish of YouTube content, and you’ve only got to worry about a six-second timeframe. Ready to get started?

1. Tell a story

Six seconds might not seem like a long time to share with someone. However, you can pack a lot in there. What’s the problem that your product or service solves? Condense and illustrate your value proposition into a Vine. Digital Advertising agency Code Computerlove took this to the next step by creating an entire comic book of Vines.

2. How To’s

Demonstrate something either related to your product or using your product or service. For example, a company like Kohl’s could create a snazzy Vine showing users how to change a towel rack.  Here’s a great example using cooking – even without step-by-step instructions, I know exactly how to make this brownies recipe – and anything I don’t catch the first time around, I can either pause on or watch again when the video loops.

 

3. Behind the Scenes

Just like in other social communities, Vine can create another avenue for you to humanize and personify your brand. Offer users a unique look at what exactly makes your company tic. Alternatively, if show them something unexpected or surprising about what goes into your brand – The BRIT Awards are doing it right:

4. Tease your community

Give users a taste with a six-second preview of a product or service. If you want to take it one step further, invite them to find out more on your website. This can be a great way to use Vine to grow your community elsewhere, be it on another social channel or even your emailing list.

5. Stop-Motion

Vine’s simple pause/play recording makes it super simple to make short, engaging stop motions. These really give you the chance to let your imagination run wild – make your product come to life, or just send out a whimsical message to your followers. Do a search for #stopmotion on Twitter to get some great ideas.

6. Let Them Try Their Chances

Pioneered by Brand In 6 with his ‘Magic 8 Ball’, take advantage of the pause feature and let users ‘play’ with your vine. See if you can think of a way that your followers could play ‘roulette’ with your brand. For example, Adobe’s recent campaign poking fun at buzzwords could translate into a ‘Busted Buzzwords’ Vine. Here’s another recent idea from Brand In 6 to get your wheels turning.

 

What clever uses have you found for Vine? Share us your thoughts in the comments.