Promote Your Business in Six Seconds with Vine

By: Jessica Chestnut

In January 2013, Twitter (the company behind the 140-character tweet) released Vine, an app that lets users record six second looping videos. Creating a video is simple - just hold the screen on an Apple device to record, lift your finger to stop recording, and repeat if necessary (rumor has it that an Android version is next). Six seconds may sound like a measly amount of time to get a message across, but like the character limitations of Twitter, it inspires a new breed of ingenuity.

Videos can be shared through Twitter and Facebook (however, you don’t have to have a Twitter account to use Vine). A recent update of the service also allows to embed any Vine video anywhere on the internet, whether they created it or not.

While Vine may not produce the highest quality videos (since they’re all done on mobile devices), it’s still a fun and simple way to try your hand at promoting your business. Show off new products in a quick teaser video, or create a before-and-after of your product and service at work. Like Twitter, don’t forget to include hashtags in descriptions that are relevant to your business or industry (allowing your videos to come up more often in search results). It only takes a few minutes to put together a video that can reach a broad audience.

Vine gives you the option to try your hand at different styles of videos. Time lapse is great for showing how far your company or a specific product has come over the years, or what it takes to manufacture something for your business. Stop motion is a great way to create simple animation in a number of mediums. All videos run in a loop, so keep in mind that it can be difficult to tell the beginning from the end at times.

How can you best utilize the six seconds to promote your business?

• Turn your customers into brand advocates: Get your customers to do the advertising for you! Encourage them to create Vine videos and attach a hashtag with your business name to it. Feature their video on your social media page. Or, consider running a contest for the best/funniest/most creative Vine video.

• Tease your audience with hints of new products or services: Six seconds isn’t a lot of time to do a full preview of a new product or service. Instead, use the limited amount of time as a teaser to generate excitement. Encourage viewers to share the video to be the first to win the new product or service.

• Show your company’s personal side: Use your six seconds to give a quick video tour of your office, introduce a couple of staff members or show off your production facilities. Show customers that there are faces behind your brand.

• Give a history lesson of your brand or company: Whether it’s the evolution of a specific product, your company logo, or including clips of your business expanding its facilities, Vine can help you cover many years of changes in a matter of seconds.

• Create a before and after video: Show off how your product or service improves things with a quick video. Think of the impact of a quick time lapse of a house being painted, hair being cut and styled, or a cleaning product doing its magic on something filthy.

• Highlight your current products: If you have an expansive product line, pick one item a week to showcase and familiarize your customers with. Use stop motion to display the product from all angles or time lapse to show it in action.

• Build excitement at trade shows:  Vine is truly mobile, so use it in the office or on the road, like at trade shows. Create a quick video of setting up your booth, ending with it complete. Capture the buzz around your booth during the show with time lapse of people stopping by. Show the success of your business at the show to those who were unable to attend.

• Have fun with it: If you feel like six seconds isn’t enough time to get across the point you want to make, try taking the route of many other businesses using Vine, and just have fun with it. Create something short and humorous that shows the lighthearted side of your business, perhaps highlighting your employees having a good time. Be sure to incorporate your logo or something specific to your company into the video to maintain brand integrity.

• Improve the quality of your recording: Vine is not designed to make Hollywood worthy videos - remember, they are created on a mobile device! If you’re concerned with the shakiness that may come from tapping on a phone, invest in a small tripod for a steadier recording. Sound quality issues may be addressed by adding an external microphone.

If you have an Apple device and are looking to get creative with marketing your business, download the Vine app and give it a try. Share your videos on HEROweb’s Facebook page - we’d love to see what you come up with!

Take a look at this HEROweb Vine video, showing how our websites have changed over time.

We encourage you to browse Vine videos and see what others are doing. Here are a few examples to help inspire you: