Are you ready to learn vine marketing?
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the development of media on planet earth, it’s that we want it quicker and shorter.
From feature-length movies during the dawn of cinema, to half hour TV shows in the age of home entertainment, to today’s five minute YouTube videos, now to six second Vine videos!
Vine videos are filling in the online need of those who want to be entertained right now, in the moment. You don’t have to think of it as throwaway entertainment, you can think of it as precise entertainment.
You have to cut right to the bone of your idea and present it clearly to succeed. That, and a few other tricks, will help your Vine marketing reach its goals.
Six seconds is LOTS of time
The typical frame rate for a Vine video is twenty four frames/second.
With each video having a maximum time of six seconds we can calculate pretty easily that a Vine video can have up to one hundred forty four frames. Does that seem like not anywhere near enough to get a point across?
Take into consideration your favorite piece of art. Whether it’s DaVinci’s ‘Mona Lisa,’ Raphael’s ‘The School of Athens,’ or Michelangelo's ‘The Creation of Adam,’ they all have one thing in common: They are one ‘frame’ long!
You have to stop thinking about those six seconds as a limit and think of them as an opportunity to convey your idea. None of the artists above thought that one frame wasn’t worth their time, why would you turn down one hundred forty four?
The final points to consider in those one hundred forty four frames are the first and last frames. Vine videos are designed to loop repeatedly. The reason that Vines get so many plays, or loops, is precisely because people watch them over and over again.
If you want to learn how to make Vines that are watched repeatedly, you can try doing an infinite loops video like this:
https://vine.co/v/MjBBFuXXhvp
Or something that’s helpful to watch a few times, like Oreo’s silly series of directions on making ‘Oreo cookie balls.’ This is just one, but all five Vines together make the story complete:
https://vine.co/v/O6K3HwIzrDH
Realize that people are going to watch your Vines more than once and build that into the one-hundred-forty-four-frame plan.
Use Vine to cross-promote your content
Vine marketers have tried to leave Vine alone on an island unto itself, and many of them have …failed.
No social platform, no matter how good, can exist on its own. You have to come up with ways to work your Vine into your other web properties to promote it, and to use Vine to promote your other web properties.
Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
● Vine videos are a no-brainer share on Twitter. The one hundred forty character limit works so perfectly with the one hundred forty four frame limit and people’s expectations for short content. Tap into trending hashtags on Twitter to really see success.
● Use Vine videos as ‘teaser trailers’ for your YouTube channel. Vine has the power of hashtag marketing to help connect the video to other videos. You can imagine all of the hashtag marketing this opens you up to so that your YouTube videos can sync up with today’s trend.
● Repurpose your blog content into quick Vine videos. Vine is open to all kinds of content, from comedy to news. Shooting six second pitches of your articles can push people to actually read your content. Think of the opening scene to every episode of The Daily Show where Trevor (Jon, we haven’t forgotten you!) will take a few seconds to summarize the night’s topics.
● Create ‘best of’ moments from Vine and create a YouTube video. This is a spin on that ‘Vine as YouTube video teaser’ idea from earlier, but this time we’re going in reverse!
● Embed your Vine videos on your website, in blog posts, and in emails. The whole world wants everything to be multi-media, and Vine is giving you another way to do that.
The more you do to put your Vine videos in more places, the better off it will be.
Work on your timing
Having some content out right when a trend hits is so important online today. With Vine videos being six seconds long, and expectations not being as high due to low budgets, it could be the perfect medium for trends and video to come together.
You have to be prepared to create things in the moment when it comes to trending content …or do you?
You know what events are going to matter already, so have content ready for:
● Major award shows that tie in with your Vine account
● Sporting events, especially if your local team is doing well
● The premier of movies and important TV shows
● Large celebrity happenings like weddings, breakups, and feuds
These are the exact pieces of content that are easy for people to share right in the moment when things are happening. Plan ahead to make it look like you were ready and reacted right when the moment happened!
Need an example? Pepsi had this Vine ready in advance of Super Bowl 49 with Super Bowl player Jerod Mayo featured:
https://vine.co/v/OI1MLmMbYPJ
Don’t forget to watch the Trending Topics for ideas in the moment!
Use hashtags to extend those six seconds
Brands and smart Vine users have started using hashtags to link their videos together. This is so that one six second video can link with another video and tell a longer story, or link together similar stories. This is the entire point of hashtags on any platform, Vine just does it with video.
GE could have done a lot more with their #6secondscience videos if they had worked harder on linking their Vine to other accounts. These linked videos never really took off like this bottle:
https://vine.co/v/O6nW5JqjA2x
But they did start to form the basis for Vine marketers to come. The hashtag was so good that people are still using it today, long after GE gave up!
The idea was solid, their commitment was a bit too low. If you’re going to use this strategy to get more Vine loops you need to commit harder than they did and have a plan in advance.
Using Vine to communicate quickly
You don’t always have to use Vine as part of some well thought out marketing plan. It can be used simply to communicate information quickly. Apply this to:
● Demonstrating your new products or services. Having it explained via voice or text doesn’t quite match video. Especially a video which can be looped over and over until the viewer learns it.
● Embed them in your FAQ section to speed up the process of teaching people the answers you don’t want to take the time to explain over and over. Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to explain something in your FAQ again because something was lost in the text …I will assume many hands were raised.
● To say ‘thank you’ directly to certain followers, fans, or customers. They took at least six seconds for you, someone around your office has six seconds to thank them.
Vine is social media marketing as much as it’s video marketing. Use it is a communication tool, and never forget how cool it can be when a popular account says ‘thank you’ to followers.
About the Author – Ernest is a social media writer and analyst for the Social Media Marketing Guide, SMMGuide.co, blog. You can read the weekly posts here to learn more about Vine, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud, and many other social and digital marketing opportunities!