Vine: What’s All The Fuss About?
By Amy @BubbleJobs
It’s fair to say that this week has been a fairly big (and incredibly busy) week for Twitter. The past seven days have seen Twitter announced as the fastest growing social network in the world after signing up nearly 36% of all internet users, the release of its new mobile video sharing app Vine, disgruntled HMV employees taking control of the company’s feed and massive outages (the fail whale was out in full force!) – phew! OK, if we’re being totally honest, Twitter actually announced the launch of Vine on 24th January but it’s only this week that it’s really caught the world’s attention so go with it…
Yep, Vine’s been getting attention this week for all the right.. and sadly wrong reasons (which we’ll come onto in due course) but what even is it? Billed as the “Instagram for video”, Vine allows users to capture and share short (6 seconds or less) looping videos on the subject of their choice. With Vine, it’s all about creating brief, inspiring, unique videos that capture attention and act as “windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life”- OK…..!
Just like a tweet, it’s all about keeping it brief with Vine and sharing content with others. We should probably point out here that the focus is on creating a video and then sharing it, rather than sharing a video which already exists.
Hmm, so what’s Vine actually good for? Firstly, Vine is great for stop motion animation. Yep, if you’ve always loved Wallace and Gromit, Vine could be the app that lets you create your own stop motion animation video – in fact Vine actually encourages you to film in short bursts, rather than one continuous stream so you have no excuses to stop being lazy. Then there’s advertising. Six second videos have a huge appeal for brands who want to get their message across quickly and directly. The good bit? Vine videos are only six seconds long – this means they’re short (great for consumers) but will need to extremely creative to be effective (again, great for consumers).
OK, now we’ve got the measure of Vine, what’s the reaction been? Well, just like any new app that receives the backing of one of the world’s biggest social networks, there’s certainly been a lot of buzz about Vine… but unfortunately not all of it has been good. Granted there are loads of people that are singing Vine’s praises, with brands like GAP and Malibu all jumping on the band wagon, but just like any other video platform, there’s the issue of inappropriate content to contend with, namely (yep, you guessed it!) porn.
In a case of terrible timing, the Vine team themselves got caught out this week when a pornographic clip was picked out as an “Editor’s Pick” – a list of highlighted videos which are inserted into every Vine user’s main feed – D’oh! Of course, the team blamed a “human error” but it’s proof that there’s a serious risk of spam and inappropriate content targeting and making use of the Vine platform – definitely something the Vine team are going to need to police more closely moving forwards.
So there you go; the good, the bag and the ugly of Vine. Have you tried it yet? What do you think? Leave us a comment below or tweet us at @BubbleJobs.
About the Author
Amy Edwards Amy Edwards is the SEO Manager for Bubble Jobs. With a strong background in online content and copywriting, Amy is responsible all the on-site and off-site SEO of Bubble Jobs and the Bubble Jobs blog. You can follow her on Twitter here or add her to your circles on Google+ here.
