GUIDE TO
SOCIAL BUSINESS:
PLATFORMS
VINE
#CerebraInsights
CONTENTS
WHY BRANDS SHOULD CARE ABOUT VINE?------------------- 1
ABOUT VINE------------------------------------------------------- 2
THE NUMBERS----------------------------------------------------- 3
VINE IN PARTS----------------------------------------------------- 4
What features and elements make it vine?
Channels
Explore section: Popular Now / On the Rise
Vine Messages
Sessions
Time Travel
Loop Counts
Hashtags and sharing
Revining
VINE COMPONENTS--------------------------------------------- 7
Home Screen
Explore
Camera
Activity
Profile
Messages
Find People
VINE CULTURE AND PERCEPTIONS----------------------------- 9
BRANDS AND VINE----------------------------------------------- 10
TIPS / BEST PRACTICE--------------------------------------------- 11
BUILDING A COMMUNITY--------------------------------------- 12
Engagement within Vine
Above the line
Traditional promotion
Cross-platform integration
Advertising on Twitter
BRANDS GETTING IT RIGHT------------------------------------- 13
ABOUT CEREBRA------------------------------------------------- 16
WHY BRANDS SHOULD CARE
The rise of online video content has not gone unnoticed and is estimated to contribute around 84% of
online traffic, according to Cisco. This is reason enough to invest a good proportion of marketing budget
into building your brand’s presence through rich media platforms like Vine.
The rate of video publishing and consumption has been on an upward trend for the past few years.
Vine has allowed the general public to share experiences and moments through six-second videos,
contributing to its massive success as a breakthrough social media platform. The potential of the
platform was realised very quickly; just four months after they were founded Twitter bought them.
This acquisition added a necessary boost to Twitter by making rich media native to the platform.
Recent statistics show that branded Vines are watched four times more than other online videos of
that brand. This is good news for brands looking to show their creative side by building a personality
and voice on social media.
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ABOUT VINE
Vine is a video-sharing social network bought out and owned by Twitter. Users share videos via the Vine
app, which can be downloaded for Android and iOS devices at their respective app stores. New users can
select a username of their choice, if available, or by linking it to their Twitter account.
Vine is designed to record short, separate instances that can be stitched together for a total of six seconds.
This main element has allowed for users to get creative within the video length restriction. Once the video
is ready, it can be tagged and captioned before being posted to your followers on the app. You also have the
option to share it with the other social networks you’ve connected with. Each video continuously loops and
can be viewed directly from the Twitter timeline.
It is not an app that aims to create pseudo-filmmakers; it is, however, an app for sharing moments. It is
common to watch videos online and go back and re-watch certain moments in the video; Vine’s loops
function fulfills that role perfectly, so you can watch those key moments over and over again. Many users
took this aspect and created, what some would call, magic. Their understanding of the platform and
creativity with stop motion techniques have made this platform exciting and engaging, adding something
new to online content.
If you have a moment to share with the world, Vine is here to make it easy for you.
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THE NUMBERS
57%
ARE FEMALE
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VINE IN PARTS
WHAT FEATURES AND ELEMENTS MAKE IT VINE?
Although Vine is an app designed for use with smartphones and tablets, millions of users access Vine on
the web through the likes of vine.co, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. According to the Vine blog, “Vine
was built for one purpose: to make it easy for people to capture life in motion and share it with the world.
New iOS updates mean that you have more editing options within the Vine camera and videos recorded
outside of the app can now be imported and edited together with other clips.
The Vine camera is used in-app and only records when the screen is touched.
It features a front facing camera, a grid to assist with stable shooting, a focus button, a ghosting tool for
stop motion and the ability to save drafts.
CHANNELS
Vine has 15 different channels that you can explore or submit videos to. Channels include animals, art,
comedy, DIY, family, food, music & dance, news, places, science & tech, sports and style.
EXPLORE SECTION: POPULAR NOW / ON THE RISE
This section of Vine was created for users to discover new accounts and make it easier to find content.
Popular Now is a feed of Vines that have captured the attention of the community and often have hundreds
of thousands of loops.
On the Rise is a feed where users can explore Vines that are trending.
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VINE MESSAGES
Similar to Twitter’s Direct Messaging feature, Vine also has the ability to send private videos and texts to
friends as well as anyone in your address book.
SESSIONS
Vine allows users to start shooting and editing videos and gives the option to save a session, which they
can come back to at a later stage. There is a limit of 10 posts that you can work on at a time.
TIME TRAVEL
This feature allows you to make edits to your video before sharing. You can get rid of shots, replace them
with others and also reshuffle shots as you please.
LOOP COUNTS
Loop counts show how many times a particular Vine has been looped. The number updates as the video is
being watched and this includes both Vine and web views.
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HASHTAGS AND SHARING
With Instagram video being Vine’s direct competition, they have made sure sharing and searching is as
easy as possible. Users can search Vine with hashtags as well as @mentions. Hashtags work the same
way as on Twitter or Instagram, where you can make up any word/sentence and add a # in front of it.
You can also use existing hashtags that relate to various themes or trends to help make your Vine
searchable and reach a specific audience. Trending Tags are situated in the Explore section and show
the top trending hashtags that have rapidly risen in popularity.
Once you have finished editing your video you have the option of sharing to Twitter and Facebook in
addition to Vine. The sharing functionality also allows users to share other people’s Vines provided that
their posts are not protected.
Protected Posts allows you to control who sees your video.
REVINING
Revining is basically the same as a retweet and allows users to share posts with their followers. There are
less content creators than there are curators of videos so many brands and individuals take advantage of
revining specific content. The key to having your videos revined is to make sure it’s content that people
want to share.
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VINE COMPONENTS
HOME SCREEN
Each user has a timeline showing the latest Vines posted by users they follow, presented in a chronological
order, with the most recent posts appearing at the top.
EXPLORE
The Explore tab presents the most popular videos on Vine, internationally. It’s segmented by popular
categories including: art, comedy, food and music, amongst others. Two extra menu items allow users to
search for Vines that are currently popular and Vines that are ‘on the rise’. Vines with a high number of
re-loops and engagement, that fit under the mentions categories, feature on these pages.
A search bar is also included to allow you to search for people or tags.
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CAMERA
The Camera button is how you post a video, by either recording on-the-fly or uploading a previously edited
video from your phone’s media library. From this menu you have the option to use your camera’s flash ghost
function, which is a key feature for recording stop-motion videos.
To record a video, the app requires you to touch the screen and, once you lift off, the camera stops recording.
You will then be offered the chance to write a caption, tag people, add a location, select a category that it can
be found under and select which other social sites you would like to share to. All that is left is to publish.
ACTIVITY
The Activity tab provides updates on your profile: followers and news. New followers gained will show up
here and, by clicking on that activity, you can go directly to that new followers profile, where you can watch
their uploads and follow them if you please. The news focuses on the performance of your video uploads:
likes, comments and revines.
PROFILE
The Profile tab contains your information as a registered user of Vine. It houses all the videos that you’ve
uploaded noting the numbers of posts and the Vines that you have liked. You can access your profile
settings, which allows you to choose the colour of your profile and account details like: email, password,
notifications and privacy. You can also connect your Vine account to other social networks and invite
friends to register as a user on Vine.
MESSAGES
This tab is found on the top right hand side of the screen where you can access private messages sent
between friends and other users.
FIND PEOPLE
The find people tab is found on the top left hand corner of the screen. You can search for users through
contacts on Vine, Twitter users you follow or a through a general search function.
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VINE CULTURE AND
PERCEPTIONS
Vine Culture has developed relatively quickly considering its launch was only in 2013. The limitations of the
platform are what have sparked creativity and innovation and there is a definite feeling of realness that exists
within the community today. The instantaneous nature also means that it’s ok if videos are not well produced
and highly polished.
After browsing Vine you will notice some specific trends within the community. These include stop motion,
skit, singing/music, real life happenings and competitions.
There is a definite culture of experimentation across the Vine community and as with other social media
platforms, fads tend to spread like wildfire.
Instagram video came after Vine’s launch and there are a few key differences. The biggest difference
feature-wise is that you could import and upload pre-created videos on Instagram, whereas Vine didn’t
allow this. Some users figured out a way to “hack” the system, but often the platform would pick up on this
and pull the videos down due to terms of use violations. With a recent update on IOS, Vine has now allowed
users to import external videos and edit them along with other clips either created in Vine or not. There is a
description found online that sums it up perfectly: If Instagram is an art museum, Vine is a block party.
It will be interesting to see how things shift culture-wise with the new option of uploading pre-edited videos.
Whether there will be a rise in the number of popular vines that are more “formal” is yet to be seen.
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BRANDS AND VINE
Vine has over 40 million users worldwide. It allows users and brands alike to create impactful, memorable,
shareable content quickly and easily. Your brand can choose how to wow your audience, whether with
clever concepts and low-key production (like Lowe’s “Fix in Six” series of home improvement hacks) or
special effects and higher end production (like Samsung Mobile, where many hours are spent on building
]sets and professionally animating concepts). Whatever tactic your brand chooses, the most important
aspect to keep in mind is great story-telling.
General Electric was one of the early adopters of the platform and now has a strong following to their science,
DIY and behind-the-scenes videos. They have included Vine in their monthly content strategy and make use
of various user-submitted Vines.
There are a multitude of opportunities that exist for brands on Vine. From marketing campaigns, NGO
initiatives and PR to competitions and events, it’s all about creativity and resourcefulness. Social Media
Examiner created a list of different ways that brands can use Vine:
- User-generated content is a great strategy on Vine. Highlight your brand advocates by creating
conversations on the platform and letting followers post content for you.
- Use Vine to show off your brands portfolio of work.
- If you are wondering what content to create, why not use trivia as the basis for some interesting videos.
General Electric find historical trivia their fans may enjoy.
- Use holidays as inspiration for content
- Preview up-and-coming products.
- Give fans an insiders look at your offices
- Use Vine to advertise competitions
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TIPS / BEST PRACTICE
There are some commonly shared best practices and tips that brands can use to make great Vines.
When it comes to the basics of creating great Vine videos, be sure to use a tripod and the ghost feature
for stop motion, keep the message to one or two points at most, and use your earphones to record better
quality sound. Keep in mind that Vine still uses the basic film principles as you would use for other video
platforms. Vines loop and there is a lot of opportunity to use that feature creatively.
In terms of tactics, using hashtags is essential for searchability and capitalising on popular trends. Creating
how-to video content is recommended where applicable. Having a call to action along with content that
matches means a clear message for viewers. Simplicity can often be key.
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BUILDING A COMMUNITY
Using Vine is quite simple, however, building a community, whether you’re an individual or a brand, requires
research, insight and well thought out tactics. The quality of content inherently needs to be good, much in
the same way as any other social platform. However, there are a few ways that will help you build an engaged
community:
ENGAGEMENT WITHIN VINE
Engagement on Vine is the first call of gaining reach, creating awareness and attracting an audience
to your channel. Vine has built-in features to help content and channels gain traction. Vine after all is a
user-generated-content-based platform and the success of it is measured by the amount of active and
engaged users, who are driven by content.
One such feature is the Explore tab, which is based on high engagement and categories, which, if your
content fits into those categories, creates a higher chance that your accent will get noticed and, if the
quality is high, get followed.
ABOVE THE LINE
Brands have started doing television adverts filmed on Vine. This shows large promise for the platform
and provides exposure and reach to a mass market. This provides a significantly cheaper production cost,
however, the standard of quality is still the responsibility of the brand.
TRADITIONAL PROMOTION
Capitalising on the media opportunities available to you is the key to success. Promoting the fact that your
brand has a Vine account can be done via email signatures, business cards, newsletters and above the line
advertising. Your employed media (employees) has a potentially large role to play in community building.
Using Vine for internal marketing and communication, such as event invitations and fun messaging, has
many advantages beyond Vine.
CROSS-PLATFORM INTEGRATION
Cross-platform integration allows you to tap into existing audiences. Using select content on these platforms
encourages followers to go to the channels to finds more.
ADVERTISING ON TWITTER
Advertising on the Vine platform doesn’t exist, however, as Twitter is the parent company, their advertising
is available to you if your accounts are linked. Use Twitter advertising by scripting a tweet containing Vine
content and promoting it using strategised targeting to gain maximum reach to a relevant audience.
This not only promotes your Vine content and account, but also your Twitter account, allowing you to
promote two separate platforms at one cost.
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BRANDS GETTING IT RIGHT
GENERAL ELECTRIC
LEGO
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SAMSUNG MOBILE
Samsung Mobile has an array of amazing stop motion Vines with themes and hashtags that align to their
products and features. They create beautiful sets and captivate viewers with clever loops, use of colours
and imaginative concepts. They also do some behind-the-scenes Vines that show animators hard at work.
They often work for up to days at a time on a single 6-second video.
LOWE’S
Lowes uses simple stop motion techniques to display clever life hacks and tips to improve your home.
They feature up cycling and storage ideas and tricks with tools as well as holiday messages.
They also crowdsource tips from followers.
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DUNKIN’ DONUTS
Dunkin Donuts feature their products and specials as well as any holidays that may be relevant to their brand.
They tap into the lifestyle that comes with their products. For example, they will create a summer themed
vine featuring their Frozen Coolatta.
Colour plays an important role.
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ABOUT CEREBRA
Cerebra was founded in 2006 as a communication agency helping corporate brands enter the social
media space. Since then, Cerebra has grown into Africa’s social business authority, with a team of
incredibly talented, hard-working personalities with a passion for helping businesses transition from
industrial age thinking to information age delivery.
The Cerebra business comprises four key components: Agency, Academy, Insights and Advisory, offering
services covering social media marketing, training, research and strategic direction.
For more visit www.cerebra.co.za
Check out other resources like this one at www.cerebra.co.za/resources
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