Vine is a fantastic video creator’s social network that allows users to make 6 second video clips that continuously loop like an animated gif. The time restriction that this Twitter owned company enforces has been embraced by creative people as an opportunity to make remarkable video content that people will want to share.

In August 2013, The Verge reported that Vine had achieved 40 million registered users, which is around 17 or 18% of the 230+ million users that Twitter itself has. With such a potential breadth of brand exposure, it is no wonder that marketers are seeking ways to utilise this avenue to promote their company’s products and services.

If you’re looking for ways to use Vine to promote your business, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to provide a few suggestions on how you can leverage this niche network of video makers to raise awareness of your brand.

Be a Creator

In order to start contributing to Vine’s growing library of videos you will need a smartphone/ tablet and download their app:

You can sign up using your company’s Twitter profile or an email address if you don’t have a Twitter account.

If you want to go ahead and start testing it by filming whatever, feel free to. However, it is better to plan your videos before publishing anything so that your brand image remains consistent.

To get the ball rolling, here are some cool video ideas you might want to try:

Use the Will it Blend Formula

Pick a unique feature or benefit (USP) of your products, services, or brand name and try to promote it in a 6 second video. Will it blend utilised YouTube in this way by stating that their brand of blenders were tough enough to destroy almost anything and proving it. A similar strategy is transferable to products of a similar nature.

Use Humour

One of the most popular elements of shared Vines is comedy, in fact if you explore their range of videos you will find a whole category dedicated to this genre. Try to put a funny spin on your company’s offering in 6 seconds and you could be considered a comical genius.

Here’s a video that tackles the often awkward subject of menstruation and how a company put a hilarious spin on it:

Life Hacks and Tips

I have learned some incredible things on Vine, like how to separate a yolk from the white of an egg using a water bottle. Any amazing advice you can supply users with that is related to your business is a great way to get on the good side of Vine users.

Create a Stop Motion Clip

Stop motion clips can be drawn animations, animated objects or any clip that involves capturing each frame to make a full animated movement. They are very tricky to create but not impossible. A well-captured stop motion video could captivate the attention of Vine’s viewers, which is something you can attempt yourself or employ the skills of an animation expert.

Approach Creators

There are plenty of popular video makers on Vine who have large follower bases, which could provide you with an opportunity to raise brand awareness through some type of endorsement or by paying them to make something that incorporates your product/ service.

This is a somewhat traditional marketing tactic of endorsement/ product placement that is commonly used by companies who intend to push their offerings out to the target audience of movies, tv programmes, and other video media.

How you approach the creators is up to you. Most Vine users have their social networks linked to their profile so you can easily find them and propose the way you’d like them to promote your business.

Encourage User-generated Content

If your company’s target audience happens to use Vine, you could invite them to create a 6 second advert for one of your company’s products and append a specific hashtag (#). To motivate these users, you could provide an exclusive voucher or competition draw that appeals to them.

This strategy would display your brand in front of your customers’ followers and provide free mini adverts that you can embed into web pages. Because the ad is only 6 seconds long, people might be more inclined to take part as it can be done quickly.

Make sure you lay down a set of requirements for the clip e.g. must have the product/ brand mentioned or featured somehow but don’t be too restrictive, as you wouldn’t want to crush your audience’s creativity.

Grow Awareness With Vine

The few methods that we’ve suggested should be enough to inspire your promotional efforts on Vine. Although they are mainly geared towards raising awareness of your brand, you can include a URL in the video description in an attempt to direct viewers to your site but it won’t be hyperlinked.

The amount of re-vines and likes that your content receives is one way to measure how popular the videos you create are, however, you can also share them through Facebook and Twitter and measure what engagement they generate using those platform metrics too.

At current there are is no dedicated Vine analytics tool, making a definitive ROI of this type of promotional activity difficult to measure. Although, it is fair to say that this network is a nice niche opportunity for company’s to take advantage of.

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