I heard about Vine a while ago, but not until the past week or two have I seen more and more Vine videos in my Twitter feed. People are starting to pick up on the new app and have begun creating six-second looping videos. I recently made my own account, but I was yet to truly explore the use of the app through a business perspective until I came across an article on entrepreneur.com entitled “The Pros and Cons of Using Video App ‘Vine’ for Marketing.” This article points out that while the six-second videos allow you to stop and start recording to create a mixture or videos and images, it may be restricting for some marketers.

            The pros of Vine are that it is a new and attractive app that is quickly becoming popular and the use of videos and moving images will attract the attention of many. The use of photos is already extremely useful in engaging and connecting with viewers, and the effectiveness of videos is even greater. The ability to use Vine to share videos easily and quickly with viewers makes Vine a possibly successful marketing tool. Vine can be used in a variety of ways. As mentioned in the article, one candy maker used it to send a sweet message to viewers on Valentine’s Day. Vine can be used as a promotional tool to create a short demo of your product or service. It can also be used to make your brand more personable and allow consumers to connect with your brand by posting videos of employees, customers receiving the service, behind-the-scenes processes, etc. Or, if you want to focus on engaging consumers and encourage interaction, brands can get their Twitter followers to post their own Vine videos of the product. The ease of using Vine allows for multiple opportunities to use the app to promote one’s brand.

            Marketers have also found some cons to Vine that make it less viable as an effective marketing tool. Some of the drawbacks of Vine include its’ reputation, limited video time, and saturation. Immediately following the launch of the app, a pornographic image was uploaded and featured in the “Editor’s Picks” section of the app. iTunes then removed the app from their “Editor’s Choice” list and increased the rating to viewers “17 or older.” While most videos are appropriate for all eyes, Vine does not monitor or prohibit pornographic images. Businesses should therefore be careful when recommending the app to viewers. In addition to the reputation and limit of these six second clips, marketers are also turned off by the saturation of the app. Vine is simple to use and it is therefore easy to get carried away and constantly post videos to one’s account. Vine is like all other social media platforms though and posting irrelevant content too often can easily annoy consumers. Marketers need to spend time to think about the content of their videos and make sure they are providing customers with entertaining and appealing videos that positively reflect the brand.  After reading this article, I am interested to go follow different brands that I am interested in on Vine and see how they have decided to use the app and what kind of content they are producing for it.

~Katie