Using Vine: is it a useful tool or one social network too many?

When Vine first started to spread its branches all over Twitter on January 24th this year, it proved an instant hit. The app reached No. 1 among free apps in the Apple social app store the day after its release, and Mashable recently reported that more than 100,000 tweets containing the Vine.co short – link were shared on the second weekend of February 2013.

The 6-second clips may be all the rage with those who fancy themselves as amateur filmmakers, but the free video sharing service is also proving to be popular with high street lifestyle brands looking to share their products, promote events such as fashion shows and photo shoots, and evolve their existing relationship with customers.

Predictably, there’s been some scepticism around what can be done with the tool. Is it just a gimmick? This post looks at what three big brands are doing on Vine. Read on to get inspiration, and find out whether your brand should join in.

Urban Outfitters:

Number of vines: 46
Set up account: 62 days ago
Vine followers: 12,211
Twitter followers: 650,545

The trendy clothing store chain uses Vine to showcase products and reinforce their brand. They’ve jumped head-first into the Vine experience, posting 46 times since setting up their account a couple of months ago. They have 12,211 followers, which is respectable for the network, but tiny compared to their huge mass of Twitter fans.

They post product highlights, like this one:

All. Of. The. Shoes. #shoes #urbanoutfitters vine.co/v/bpJWhWErFiL

— Urban Outfitters (@UrbanOutfitters) March 18, 2013

They also give insights into their staff culture, while reinforcing their brand at the same time, like this Vine showcasing all the staff tattoos at Urban Outfitters:

Office tattoo style. #tattoo #art #favthings vine.co/v/bDYnpYqpuPe

— Urban Outfitters (@UrbanOutfitters) March 25, 2013

Recently, they’ve also posted a lot of band videos and highlights from SXSW.

In terms of engagement, the results seem to be fairly positive. The ‘shoes’ post got 33 RTs and 42 favourites on Twitter, compared to a regular product shot linked to St Patrick’s Day, which got 15 RTs and 33 favourites.

Gap:

Number of vines: 11
Set up account: 58 days ago
Vine followers: 2,708
Twitter followers: 182,969

Gap have been a bit more cautious with Vine so far. They’ve only posted 11 videos, mostly fairly safe product shots like this one:

We’re walking in prints with our pointy flats. Which one’s your fave? #gap vine.co/v/bXwB92gmtr6

— Gap (@Gap) March 1, 2013

But they’ve also done some clever things with products, like the things popping in and out of this tote bag:

We’re packing up for the #weekend with our Leather Stripe Tote. What’s in your bag? vine.co/v/bDhWjYlz25l

— Gap (@Gap) March 22, 2013

These aren’t the most fascinating videos ever made, but they do fit well with the clean, simple and colourful Gap brand.

Adidas

Number of vines: 9
Set up account: 36 days ago
Vine followers: 316
Twitter followers: 183,330

Adidas have only 9 vines so far, but they’ve been doing some interesting things, none of which are straightforward product showcases.

One lovely example is this playful Question of Sport style ‘Guess The Player’.

We caught up with one of our F50 players in London, can you guess who he is? vine.co/v/b6edH0ZI50I

— adidas UK (@adidasUK) February 21, 2013

This is a great way to encourage interactions with their fans on Twitter and feels much more involving when there is a number of frames that each give you a clue rather than just one image.

They also showcase competition prizes like this gleaming pair of football boots:

Final chance to enter! Tell us why you’re #allin for @teammessi and you could win this: vine.co/v/bDmIqpqVuVr

— adidas UK (@adidasUK) March 22, 2013

Adidas have had some Twitter disasters in the past, so it’s good to see them embracing new social media opportunities like this.

Data and engagement

This is such a new network that there’s not a lot of analysis out there at the moment. Simply Measured have been first off the starting block, releasing a free Vine engagement measuring tool. Here’s a graph they created of how many people MTV have reached via Vine:

The best way to measure it currently is using your existing Twitter analytics. Compare your Vine tweets with your usual content, and see if adding one of the micro-clips drives more engagement in the form of retweets, @ replies and favourites.

Vine – useful or just one social tool too many?

Vine is a quick and easy way to add moving content to your social networks, without the entry barriers of a service like Youtube.  At the moment there’s no way to edit your videos, but editing options would run the risk of contradicting Vine’s intended simplicity of DNA and user friendliness.

In today’s content-overloaded world, attention spans are shortening and rapid clips such as these require minimal commitment and attention from viewers. After all, the human eye is automatically drawn to movement.

We recommend experimenting with Vine, if you have the time and the ideas spare.

Tips for fashion brands using Vine

• Set up an account and claim your name. Even if you don’t use it for a while, you’ll have the option and the brand-space ready.
• Use it as a Twitter-enhancer rather than a separate network. Even the biggest brands don’t have many Vine followers yet. The main value currently is the easy integration with Twitter.
• Use it to showcase visual aspects of your brand, especially those that are hard to show in a still photo. Matthew Williamson did this during London Fashion Week. It could be a good way to show detail, or moving parts, or products with multiple styling options.
• Think beyond the product Don’t just create product videos. Look around the office, think about how your brand identity, and brainstorm some cool ideas. Try and create an interesting peek behind the scenes for your followers.
• Experiment! Vine is so quick and easy to use, you can play around with it and create something fun.

If you liked this post, you might also like our post on how fashion brands can use Instagram, with examples from ASOS, LNCC, and Converse.