It’s not a secret that visual content was the name of the game in 2015, and the trend is showing no signs of slowing as 2016 draws closer. As platforms continue to develop and put interesting spins on visuals, one has almost completely faded from the communicator’s arsenal: Vine.
The Twitter-owned, 6-second video app once was a favorite among savvy PR pros who wanted to deliver short, entertaining messages that packed a punch. But Vine videos accounted for only 4% of total branded content in a recent study that looked at the YouTube, Vine, Instagram and Facebook accounts of 40 major brands.
With new apps like Snapchat and Periscope thrown in with the big players that the above study looked at, choosing which platform fits your voice and audience isn’t as easy as it once was. For communicators looking to learn about what kind of content works best on specific platforms, and how to develop images and videos that are sure to be shared, take a look at the Dec. 17 PR News Visual Storytelling 101 for Communicators.
But Vine isn’t best left to rot in the past like Pet Rocks or Myspace. With 200 million monthly active users who watch 1.5 billion Vine loops daily, it's a mistake to rule out the platform completely. Vine’s popularity hasn’t changed, the app’s utility has just shifted in accordance with evolving digital video ecosystems and viewing trends.
Snapchat now offers communicators a similar video format to publish content along with still images. There also are discover and story features built into the app. Vine’s lone draw is video content. Taken alongside Twitter’s recent focus on Periscope–the company’s other video product that offers a completely different take on video production by offering live-streams–and the fact that Vine doesn’t offer paid advertising, it seems like Twitter put the app to the side for now.
The types of videos users are watching have changed also. Perhaps exemplified by the explosion of native Facebook videos, audiences are shifting to favor slightly longer videos. And it should come as no surprise that with the increase in viewership, communicators favor a slightly longer format. Probably the most challenging aspect of Vine for brands is packing a coherent message into a 6-second window. Now that’s not so much of a problem as communicators are taking a little more time to unravel their stories in longer videos posted to Facebook and YouTube.
Even if posting directly to Vine is a thing of the past for brands, it’s still home to some of the most influential Internet personalities–and they’re ripe for the picking. Dunkin' Donuts and Aeropostale recently teamed up with popular Viner Logan Paul and his audience of 8.8 million followers to create sponsored Vines. The Dunkin' Donuts Vine has almost 4 million loops on the platform.
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