6 Ways to Do It For the Vine

A picture says a thousand words. We’ve all heard that saying before – because it’s true. But if a photo says a thousand words, a video says a million.

Attention spans are shrinking. The demand for engaging content is growing. We’ve got to get creative. Sounds like a job for Vine – Twitter’s inherently sharable, 6-second looping video app.

When Twitter launched in 2006, it created a brand new world of micro-communication, forcing users figure out how to condense their endless thoughts into 140 characters. Think of Vine as the video version of Twitter – it’s all about showing, not telling – then sharing.

Vines should be seen as one element of the wider social media landscape, incorporated into your overall marketing mix. Vine is super-sharable, and videos play automatically in Twitter, can be shared on Facebook and can be embedded into blogs and news stories.

But telling a story in six seconds is easier said than done, right? Not necessarily. It can be done. Here are six tips to creating brilliantly captivating six-second Vines:

1. Tell a story 

Create a beginning, middle and end. Tell a complete story and use a creative mix of camera shots (wide views, pans, close ups) to help set the scene.

 

 

 

2. Add some tunes

Did you know that you can use any song, as long as it’s ten seconds or less? I don’t have the greatest math mind, but I do know that 6 is less than ten. So add a music track to your Vines and to create an instant vibe.

3. #Hashtag people, #hashtag

Drive views to your Vines by using #hashtags and uploading them to specific channels within the app.

 

4. Take advantage of Vine’s built-in tools and tricks

Vines loop. Why not take advantage? The stop-motion functionality of Vine also makes it easy to create optical illusions, making your creative ideas come to life.

5. Be relevant and innovative

Is something popular happening in the world? Jump on board. Is it a popular song? A dance trend? Creating relevant Vines will make you… relevant! Go figure. Create innovative, fresh, timely Vines that are emotional, funny, relatable and quirky. Or show something cute. Cute always works.

6. Use Vine as the hors d’oeuvre

Vine is best used when bridging the gap between other platforms. Vines can help compliment more in-depth stories shared on other platforms – hors d’oeuvres to the main course – if you will. For instance, we used Vine to promote a Reddit Ask Me Anything session that we hosted with CSU professor, Dr. Temple Grandin. These short snippets were tweeted with a link to the entire AMA, seen here.

So go on now, make something creative and do it for the Vine!