Twitter’s new affiliate, video sharing service Vine, has already been adopted by a number of brands despite some early setbacks.A few businesses have posted videos on Vine: clothes retailer Gap has taken a “trip down #Gap advertising memory lane for [their] #firstpost on Vine. http://vine.co/v/b5PeYQOLuLj”, while broadcaster PBS has given followers a look into the lobby of their offices in Arlington, Virginia.
PBS also invited its Twitter followers to post videos on Vine during the new series of Downton Abbey with the hastag #DowntonPBS, promising that the best would be featured.
Here is the tweet on PBS's Twitter account:
The video sharing service has also been used by news broadcaster NBS New York, after a bystander sent them footage of a dolphin trapped inside Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal.
The app’s immediate popularity can be somewhat attributed to the influence of its parent company, Twitter, but is also largely thanks to Vine itself.
The service allows users to create videos quickly and simply which, despite their brevity, convey a lot of information. These videos require no editing thanks to the ability to stop and restart recording at the press – or depress – of a button.
After Vine was released, Matt Buchanan at BuzzFeed wrote an article recognising the gif-like appeal of the videos the service creates: Gifs are popular thanks to their instant gratification factor; Vine videos have a similar instantaneous effect, but can be created by simply recording real life.
Vine, however, is not without its limitations: there are a number of alterations that could be made to the service regarding privacy and content restrictions, as well as potential improvements to the app’s functionality.
The app currently has no privacy settings, meaning users can’t make their account private or block other users. All they can do is report content as inappropriate,
The Terms of Service does have some restrictions. Users are prevented from posting a video which:
- Impersonates another person or entity in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others;
- Violates the rights of a third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, and publicity rights;
- Is a direct and specific threat of violence to others;
- Is furtherance of illegal activities; or
- Is harassing, abusive, or constitutes spam.
There are some issues with Vine’s functionality which could be changed: videos can only be shared with friends as soon as they have been uploaded, so if you forget to share it with someone when you post it, it’s unlikely they’ll ever see it.
Users cannot share other people’s videos on Twitter which, although understandable considering the lack of privacy on the site, still loses Vine ground in its struggle with Instagram, which allows the sharing of anyone’s photos at any time.
Complications outside Vine’s control have also arisen: Facebook has cut off Vine’s access to its social graph, along with Yandex’s Wonder, after updating its Facebook Platform Policies page to restrict access to rivals.
So, Vine still has someway to go before it satisfies everyone, but the fact that a number of big companies have adopted the service early on shows that it potentially has a big future.
What do you think of Vine? Would you use it to promote your brand?
