Whenever a new social network hits the scene, a lot of brands run into trouble figuring out where it fits in their overall social media strategy. They hop on and create an account since it’s supposed to be the “next big thing,” but are lost when they get there.
This is happening now with one of Twitter’s recent acquisitions, Vine. In case you haven’t heard of it, Vine lets you share looping videos up to six seconds long. Like Instagram, you can use hashtags, share your post to Facebook or Twitter, and collect ‘Likes’ and comments from other users.
If you’d like to experiment with Vine on behalf of your company but don’t know where to start, here are five types of Vine posts that tend to perform well:
Behind-the-scenes looks
One great way to humanize your brand is to give your followers a look at what goes on at your office or place of business. Take short videos of your employees at work to give your customers and fans a better view of how your company operates. You can also highlight your company culture by showing what goes on at your company besides work, like BuzzFeed does in this post.
Stop motion animation
A lot of brands and individuals are using Vine to create amazing stop motion animation videos. Users love these since they’re usually more complex and creative than continuously-filmed videos. This will make them stand out among the choppy, unprofessional videos on the network. Brands like Lowes, General Electric, Mashable, and even the Peanuts comic have produced some amazing stop motion vines.
Make brand announcements
Creating a Vine video to announce something exciting will be so much more interesting than your typical status update, blog post, or press release. What’s even better is that you can embed or link to the Vine video and share it so that it can be included when you announce the news elsewhere. Vocus, a marketing software company, did this to announce an upcoming webinar.
Promote other campaigns
Having a big sale? Holding a contest or promotion on another social media outlet? Incorporate Vine into your marketing plan for the campaign. The Vine can be as simple as a shot of someone explaining the promotion in six seconds, to a skit of someone entering the contest or shopping at the sale. This great Vine from Nordstrom shows your typical shopper’s reaction to their Half-Yearly Sale.
Show off products
Six seconds is just enough time for a quick demonstration of a product or sneak peak of a new product launch. You can also use the time to show how to make something better. One of my favorite examples is home improvement store Lowe’s. Their #LowesFixInSix campaign shows solutions to common home improvement problems like hitting your finger while trying to hammer a nail.
You can, of course, come up with your own ideas and you should be as creative as possible, but always remember not to jump in without a strategy first!
