Vine: Packaging your Life in Six Seconds

Twitter, the platform that transformed the way we communicate into 140-character snippets, recently rolled out an iOS mobile application that enables anyone to convey a slice of their life in a 6 second video. Aptly titled, Vine has already hit some records in downloads and shows tremendous potential. After a few minutes of testing this free app, I found it really easy to create my videos, known as Vines. Once that was done, I could share it on the Vine network as well as post it to Twitter or Facebook. Using my dogs as subjects, here’s my first six second masterpiece:

Latest Vine with the dogs..;) vine.co/v/bJ3QbY0AEpp

— Carl Ferrara (@cferrarakc) January 31, 2013

In many respects, this is a throwback to those looped animated GIFs that thrived back in the early days of the Web 1.0. According to Twitter, they defined it Vine like this:

Posts on Vine are about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger. They’re little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life. They’re quirky, and we think that’s part of what makes them so special.

Many thoughts also came to mind for this new platform, including how organizations can leverage it in the marketplace. If a picture can tell a thousand words, think about what a 6 second video could convey. Advertisers have already embraced it and I see this as a trend for video ads and social campaigns, especially for advocacy, community-building and loyalty campaigns. I also see celebrities jumping on board, as it’s another way to reach their fan base. Even Paul McCartney has a Vine, so Beatles fans can rejoice.

There is also room for posting comments with full support of sharing and tagging. With all of that, Vine could be the next video distribution channel, giving users the opportunity to tell their stories in six seconds.

To learn more about it, check it out on the Apple App store or view their blog.

What about Viewing Vines on the Web?

There are many sites popping up with streaming Vines, so that you can see the latest micro videos out there and you don’t need to be a registered user to view them. This includes Vinepeek and All Around the Vines. Vinesmap is a great geo tracking site, for seeing real-time Vines from around the world-very cool. I anticipate that we will see more of these sites with some search functionality.