Vine and Your Business

The July edition of The Business Review Canada is now live!

By: Heather Legg

Just when you think you are up to speed on social media marketing, something new makes its way to the forefront.

Many have gotten used to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, now there’s Vine. Whether you’re seeing it on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else, Vine is the new social networking application that’s becoming increasingly popular.

What is Vine?

Vine is an app owned by Twitter, and it’s basically a way to create short, looping (six second) video feed.

The video plays in a continuous loop so it can actually be much longer than the six seconds as it runs, and these six seconds are usually a couple of seconds put together.

Think timelapse…Vine is a lot like Instagram where you have a profile page as well as subscribe to your “friend’s” pages.

On the app, you can search for particular Vine videos or use certain keywords to find Vine videos under a specific topic in the “Explore” section.

People can comment, share and like any video they see, and they can be posted right onto your Twitter stream. Which brings us to how this can help your small business.

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Social Networking 

If your business wants to stay current with social media, it’s not a bad idea to start incorporating Vine into your social media, your website, and/or your other marketing tools.

You can embed your Vine video onto your website for a fun piece of video that may grab your customers attention.

Be Creative

You can use it as a marketing tool – video clips of people using your product, words to describe it, or places you may find it – think quick, attention grabbing clips.

You can also have your customers, followers, and subscribers help you. Run a contest where the best Vine showing people wearing your logo wins a prize or discount

Think about this – you run a dance studio and it’s summer time. Have people send in their Vines wearing a piece of clothing with your dance logo on it while on their summer vacation.

You’ll feature different Vines and showcase your dancers on vacation. In the meantime, your logo is being displayed and you have fun videos to post on your website or your own Facebook and Twitter feeds. You can offer a month of free tuition or a free t-shirt, to the winning Vine.

Vine may not take the place of other media, like testimonials or commercials, but as a business, you can certainly find a use for it.

Whether you are creating Vines for your site or social media marketing, or finding fun ways for your fans to do it, you can use it as a current, fun form of social networking and marketing.

If staying in the know of social media is a priority, you probably want to touch on Vine, and whether or not it becomes a forefront of your marketing efforts, it could be a fun way to add some company promotion on social media.

About the Author: Heather Legg is a writer who covers topics on small businesses, social media and nursery cribs.