Swinging From The Vine: Six Second Marketing Magic

Most businesses know all about YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn.

But, they don’t extend their marketing outside of those normal, mainstream, social networking sites. Vine is one of the newer social networking platforms built by Twitter. It allows you to post 6 second looping videos. Why would you want to post such short vids?

[quote]Why? For marketing purposes, of course.[/quote]

Use Time Lapse Feature

The overriding style on Vine is time-lapse video. It’s perfect for looping 6-second video and about the only way to do it. When using time-lapse video, you really need to be on your game. Your marketing message has to be tight, and you’ll need stellar editing for the video. Because you only have a few seconds to say what you need to say, consider hiring a professional video copyrighter to storyboard the project for you.

If it’s good enough, people will download it using programs like on the YoutubeDownloaderSite.com site and share it on other sites, like YouTube, Vimeo, and other social sharing sites. For examples of excellent application of this video type, look up GE’s 6-second science videos.

Show Personality

It’s hard to show personality in a 6-second clip, but famous brands do it all the time. Make every second count – you only have a short window to show your creativity and originality. Urban Outfitters is a good example of a brand that nails it on personality.

Showcase New Content

If you’ve got new content you want to push out to the Internet, Vine is a good way to do it. Think teasers. Brands often use the 6-second video to introduce things like a new eBook, a download, or a blog article. The trick to pulling this off is to make something that’s visually appealing out of something that’s traditionally pretty mediocre, visually. USA is a good example of a company that understands how to do this correctly.

Use Hashtags

Using hashtags on Vine is similar to using them on Twitter. They’re a great way to help users sort through relevant topics on the site. With hashtags, your primary focus is on getting more followers for your company. Ritz Crackers is an example of a company that makes good use of the hashtag feature. Check it out.

Share and Promote

When you create a good video snippet for Vine, don’t forget to share it on as many social networking sites as you can. Share the link on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, and any other site where you have a presence. This seems like a simple strategy, but it works. It spreads your message out far and wide. And, users seeing it on one site, that also see it on another, may be more inclined to share it if they didn’t do it the first time – you’re “everywhere” so you must be popular.

You can also promote your Vine videos using traditional digital press releases. You may not want to spend the money on a press release just to promote a 6-second clip, but it can be part of the enticement to click through the link in the PR if your company is sending out multiple releases as part of a larger project.

Remember to respect IP.

Steven Young embraces new platforms for video sharing. When he has time, he likes to write about the latest innovations, so others can try them, too.

[Imagery: from their respective websites and/or social platforms]

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