Vine, a social app released on the iOS platform on January 24th, allows users to create and share six seconds of video. Vine was originally a three-person startup that Twitter acquired in October. The service never launched publicly until Twitter unveiled the app last month.
One of my first Vines
Vine has quickly risen in popularity with consumers and brands. The short videos are comparable to Twitter’s 140-character text limit to share a quick, creative story. Vine builds on the online popularity of the animated GIF, an image file which can show a few frames of animation without the need for video player software, with its short looping videos.
@UrbanOutfitters: The most important Vine you’ll ever see.#uodogs
Urban Outfitters was the first big brand to create and tweet a Vine. The Vine was captioned with “The most important Vine you’ll ever see” and featured a number of employee dogs. While this first Vine may lack some creativity, their other Vines have been more involved and clever. Other brands giving Vine a try include GE, Ritz Cracker, Dove and Trident Gum. The initial six-second Vines include fun spins on their iconic brands, products and logos.
Videos tweeted from Vine’s Make-a-Scene app appear in expanded tweets and play automatically. Within the Vine app, the videos include sound. When the videos are embedded in tweets, the sound is automatically muted, but users can press a button to un-mute them. Vine videos can also include different clips stitched together into one video, rather than just allowing one continuous shot, which sets it apart from some other mobile video apps.
Vine presents another opportunity for brands to connect with consumers on social media to make a quick impression. New products could be teased or the app could also be used to give previews of full-length videos that can actually present more of a complete message to consumers. This new platform brings out a new form of creativity, forcing brands to pack as much as they can into a six-second video.
@YouveGotMoxie: Will you be our #Valenvine?
*Rebecca May is a Community Manager at Moxie. Rebecca is a Starbucks addict and is #564 of all Foodspotters worldwide. Follow her on Twitter: @rcmay
