How to use the new Vine social app for marketing and PR

Vine is the newest and hottest social media application available for the iPhone. It was launched late last week to deliver 6-second videos.

I tell people it's sort of like Twitter for video. And since it was released by Twitter, the integration with Twitter is seamless.

I used Vine to show some covers of the 25 different languages that my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR has been translated into.

I used #vine to show a few of the 26 language covers of New Rules of Marketing & PR. vine.co/v/b5LhgtgpmOP

— David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) January 26, 2013

Like any social network, early adopters like me are trying to figure it out. I've seen my friends Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield playing around with it (check their Twitter feeds for examples) and it's getting a bunch of buzz.

It's really simple to use, you just hold down the iPhone screen to record and lift up to stop. Then you can alter the scene and do it again. This means you can easily do short segments of any length as long as they add up to 6 seconds total. At the end of the video, it repeats into an endless loop and you add a caption and release it to your Twitter feed.

It's very early days, but people seem to be gravitating to using it for demonstrations of something or to capture the feeling in a location. There also seems to be a bunch of people using Vine for porn, but I'm not going to elaborate on that… (Google it).

I'm excited to use Vine to share short snippets of rock shows and I'll try to shoot one at The Vaccines show in Boston tomorrow night. [UPDATE: Here is that one.]

With just 6 seconds, the challenge for marketing and PR use is to tell a story. In a weird way, I found the 6-second constraint to be very liberating, much like the 140 character limit of a tweet.

To get your creative mind working, here are just a few ideas for how you might use Vine for marketing and public relations purposes. If you have any more, please add as a comment to this post:

• A brief product demonstration.


• A short statement by the CEO.


• Highlights of an art exhibition.


• A speaker shows their view of the audience (I'll be doing that!).


• Speakers' bureaus, modeling agencies, and actors' reps show clients in action.


• Restaurants make visual online menus.


• A bartender shows her signature drink being made.


• Any kind of "before and after" such as redecorating a room or washing a car.


• Walk through of a hotel suite.

Here's a six second "behind the scenes tour" from the MSNBC television network.

#msnbc behind the scenes caught on @vineapp: RT @caramaresca: All in a day's work @msnbc vine.co/v/b5dI1ZbJOdg

— msnbc (@msnbc) January 24, 2013

Let us know how you are using Vine.

Comments

[Erik Goldhar]

Besides the porn leading to Apple pulling it from the featured section in the App store...it looks interesting.

[AllthingsIC]

Hi David, I've recorded three short vids today on Vine as I've been experimenting with it. My first was using retro weather magnets and scrabble tiles to highlight my comms blog: http://vine.co/v/bJJi01PZJzr Rachel

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Rachel -- very clever! I like the retro look. Many thanks for sharing.

[david jacobs]

After we all get over the hype this is not going to fly. I have yet to see anything close to compelling from a brand perspective. Your ideas are great but would work so much better with more time. Video will continue to be huge in 2013 but why hamstring yourself when you don't have to?

[Gary E. Parsons]

Immediatelly i can think of a perfect appliction for our business. at Archex, www.archex.ca, we design and build tradeshow exhibits. Our customerts often wants to see their exhibit install at a tradeshow but it takes many hours, (or days), to install. Nobody has the patience to stand around and watch this. Imagine, (as I am right now), giving them the experience in 6 seconds. I'm in. Consider us an early adopter.

[Custom Facebook Application]

When you see all these together it is actually a little hard on the eyes. I wonder if there will be tweaks to the length or presentation over time.

[David Meerman Scott]

David, I disagree. People said the same thing about Twitter. I think Vine will catch on with some people as we sort out how the 6-second video format is best used.

Gary - Yes! Please comment here with an example when you have one.

[AllthingsIC]

Thank you, I've written an overview of it for my blog and included three other Vines/Vineos? I made yesterday: http://www.rachmiller.com/watched-it-on-the-grapevine/

[Martin Bredl]

looks like TOUT, where you have 15 seconds.

[David Dalka]

To call this a new social network is more than a bit of a stretch of "augmented reality".

First lets get one thing straight, Twitter's user numbers are vastly overstated due to the fake bots that were used to justify VC valuations. I see less people tweeting less and less.

When someone develops a way to discover quality blog content with significant value, factual accuracy and high business acumen in a vast sea of worthless crap, please let me know ASAP, that I look forward to as it may save our species from extinction.

[Charles Christian]

David's 26 languages of PR book video is one of the neatest examples of Vine I've so far seen - says man in the UK with an iPhone

[David Meerman Scott]

David Dalka - well, okay then.

Thank you Charles.

[Brian Hasenbauer]

Why limit it to 6 seconds? it seems very stifling to creativity rather than liberating. I would rather have an open canvas and be able to say as much or as little as I would like. Socialcam is a pretty cool app and is gaining some traction but doesn't limit users to a specified length and integrates well with Facebook.

[David Meerman Scott]

Brian - for the same reason that Twitter limits to 140 characters. If not, it's just another tool. The limitation means it is a different kind of content creation than YouTube, Vimeo, and all the rest.

[Cindy]

6 seconds is wayye too short. If it were 30 seconds like an ad it would make more sense.

[David Meerman Scott]

Cindy - I think we have enough ads in our lives. This is something different and therefore interesting.

[Cavendish_hotel]

Thanks for this article, we especially like the idea to make visual online menus and we'll be going into our kitchens to practise! It is going to be really interesting to see where hotels go with this App, as you say it will take a while to get the hang of it, we found that out!

We made our first Vine today. The idea is that our hotels has both history dating back to the 1800's and a love of embracing new technology.

http://vine.co/v/bJ9qXliuZA7

We hope you like it!

[Rodney Goldston]

We should commend Twitter for leading and giving us another tool to put in our utility belts.

As Seth Godin says it's not art if you don't have to say... 'This might not work'.

And this might not.

[David Meerman Scott]

Cavendish Hotel -- Awesome! I love it. Tweeting now.

Rodney -- That's a great Seth quote. You're right - we'll look back a year or two from now and say either we were right that this is an important app or that we were wrong and it was not. But either way, we'll be happy we tried it and learned.

[Kitchen worktops lad]

Sounds exciting! I think anything that integrates with Twitter so seamlessly, and lends itself to that platform so naturally, is a big plus in my (online social media and connectivity) book.

[iPhone application development Singapore]

Vine does have some limitations. Not surprisingly, Twitter integration is cleaner through tag support and sharing. As there’s no limits in account/profile types it’s easy to connect your Vine account to your brand’s Twitter account.

[Patent box guy]

What do you think will be the future of vine? Is it a flash-in-the-pan fad, as some are saying, or will it really last?

[Katie Abrams]

While I think Vine will be a viable marketing tool for businesses, I don't think it will reach the success that platforms such as Facebook, Instragram, and Pinterest have been able to have. Videos are a great way to engage consumers and positively reflect the brand. Different uses of Vine could include showing employees at work, what happens in the backstage processes, a demonstration of the product/service, etc. However, I think being able to come up with multiple new and interesting videos that are limited to six seconds may become difficult after time. It's important for brands to tell stories that are engaging to consumers, but this may be hard with only a few seconds worth of video.

[David Meerman Scott]

Patent Box Guy - I think it will last. I am continuing to use it and so are many of the people I follow.

Katie - You're probably right that it won't achieve Facebook or Instagram level success. But I do think it is valuable.