A new social network has spread across the social universe at an astonishing rate. Vine, which is owned by Twitter, allows users to create 6 second videos which can then be shared across Twitter and Facebook. Having only launched last week Vine has made it to the top 10 apps available for download in the Apple Store and now almost half the videos shared on Twitter have come from Vine.
Quick success wasn’t possible without glitches though as Vine delivered hardcore pornography to the majority of its user base. The popularity of Vine has come at a time when animated gifs have seen resurgence across the internet, particularly on Google+.
With a new social network comes a wave of digital PR advice; three days after launch Stephen Waddington posted “10 ways brands can use Vine” and Neville Hobson recently published “Six reasons why Vine is worth your time”. Many people across the blogosphere are touting Vine as the Instagram of 2013.
I’ve personally enjoyed mucking around with Vine; recording videos of my guitar, fish and making a cup of tea at Keene Communications. It’s an exhilarating feeling seeing users get used to creating content in 6 seconds; some of the stop motion videos are incredible. Yet, just over a week into user adoption I couldn’t help but tweet:
Vine could play a significant role of integrating rich media content into Twitter strategies, especially when it comes to fashion brands. Wouldn’t it be great to see a 6 second video of a model showing off a new clothing range? (Ann Summers could take Twitter by storm!). Heck, Vine will probably become a valuable resource for some of our tourism clients at Keene but… not yet.
Whilst Vine has attempted to curb the pornography issues, some videos are still filtering through (I had a nasty shock last night whilst exploring for new content…). As a person involved working with government entities, a pornography mishap during a campaign could have disastrous consequences.
Vine is still in its infancy and over the next few weeks we can expect many changes to be made. For a start it would be nice if Vine could include support for front facing cameras. Such a small tweak, when it eventually happens, will likely adapt the sort of content being shared across the whole network. People will be showing their faces, not the objects in front of them.
Despite Vine’s young nature some brands have produced some impressive content for Vine. The best videos I’ve seen come from Trident (although a bit gross) and Twitter. For those of us working in digital PR and social media, it is worth trying out Vine and watch how the social network develops. I’ll be using the app occasionally and will always be thinking of ways to use it in upcoming campaigns.
