We like to keep you up to date on all the latest developments in the world of blogging and try to demystify and jargon-bust new releases. Today I’m sharing a little bit about the latest social media craze to hit the web, VineApp.
What is it?
Recently purchased by Twitter, in a nutshell it enables you to take video clips that are 6 seconds or less and post them on the web where they run in a continuous loop.
Why would I do that?
It’s a little too early to tell if this is a flash in the pan that everyone will get bored with or if it’s the next big thing, but with Video blogging (or Vlogging,) touted as the future then Vine has a great shot at taking over the social media world. At the moment the majority of video’s are a little un-imaginative and dare I say it boring, but as people exploit their creativity my prediction is that it will become a great add-on to Twitter.
How do I get involved?
It’s easy. Sign up for a Vine account by downloading the VineApp. (Here’s the glitch, it’s iPhone users only at present, but android apps are sure to follow soon.) You sign up similarly to Instagram (remember to make your username and avatar consistent across your brand to help your followers find you easily,) and it allows you to also connect with Twitter and Facebook so you can share your Vine’s across all your social media channels. A quick demo and you’re away.
What shall I do with it?
Think of Vine as an animated extension of Instagram. It’s a great way of taking your personal updates to the next level with sneak peeks into your life or inside your brand. You can take 6 minute complete mini-video’s of something (like this one of my cat having a spring clean,) but the App works best when you take short consecutive captures of film as they then turn out like a .gif (an animated image.) The cake Vine that I made last weekend is a good example of this. Most of all, have fun with it!
how do I share it?
Your Vine account is just like your Twitter or Instagram account, people can follow you and you follow people you like too, so make sure you spread the word that you have signed up and when you post a Vine, share it to your Twitter account or Facebook. Want to embed your own Vine App 6 second video loops into your blog? It took a bit of research but this is the bit of code I used to insert the above video. (Note this worked for our WordPress self hosted blog but I can’t guarantee it will work on other publishing platforms.)
<iframe src=”https://vine.co/v/bvaPgPHimu0/card” height=”600″ width=”600″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>
Note: You will need to replace the link above with the link to YOUR Vine that you want to share. If your blog is a different width, you can also change the numbers (this one is 600px wide) to make it fit better – we always recommend keeping your content the same width for a more visually pleasing effect across your blog.
So, have you discovered Vine yet? Sceptical or hooked, we would love to hear your thoughts and if you have any queries feel free to throw them out there and we’ll do our best to answer.
Love,
Rebecca
xo
