In early 2013
Twitter’s new social media application, Vine was launched. The app generated 40
million users by that August. (Longwell) As a Vine user myself, I have explored
the community of the app and found entertainment from the short comedic videos
along with a niche community of creative people sharing their filmmaking
skills. The unique social site promotes creativity so much that it limits the
use of advertisers while also limiting the use of what can and cannot be seen
on the app.
Since the videos
are only six seconds long, Viners can create mini stories and absurd situations
that do not take long to produce or share. However, after the success of Vine
videos, Instagram decided to up their competition and added fifteen-second
videos along with pictures. While Vine’s progress did slow down after
Instagram’s move, Vine still has a different and stable community. “Vine
Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram” by Mark O’Neill, states Vine
was not only for young users, and in the first year Twitter launched Vine the
users grew by 403 percent. The growing community opened up opportunities for
regular users, actors and even companies. According to Todd Longwell, author of
“Twitter-owned Smartphone App Changes Video Landscape,” co-creators Rus
Yusupov, Dom Hoffman and Colin Kroll believe the unique aspects of Vine allow
aspiring filmmakers to get together to create videos and allow users to view a
variety of content.
That is precisely
what Vine is doing. Struggling actors discovered Vine and gave them an
opportunity to get themselves out there and create a fan base before even
landing a major Hollywood production. These actors, now, “Vine famous,” have
expanded their opportunities with back up from the Vine community. According to
O’Neill, the Vine community is very different than that of Instagram’s
community because of the varying content and story-like approaches of Vine.
Vine users are a niche group looking for something to laugh at and can find
just what they like in subcategories like, comedy, animals, special FX, sports
and more.
What sets aside
Vine from the rest of the social media apps is the lack of advertisements. Yet
that did not stop companies from giving themselves a name on the new social
media site. Co-creator Kroll tells Variety,
“they anticipated the app would be a platform for video mash-ups for citizen
journalism,” (Longwell). Despite the popularity of regular people on Vine and
comedic approach that the co-creators did not see coming, companies like Airheads
Candy, Charmin and more jumped on board. Twentieth Century Fox was one of the
first major companies to adapt the creative, and less advertisement side, of
advertising on Vine. Within months of the launch of Vine, Fox created a
“tweaser” or a “trailer of a trailer” to promote “The Wolverine” movie
(Graser). The idea is to create six seconds of action packed clips from the
movie to entice the viewer to want to see more.
Within the past couple
of months I have noticed big brand companies making appearances on Vine. Unlike
“tweasers” these brands are using the “Vine famous” people in the community to
create funny shorts using the brand product as a prop or main focus. Charmin
enlisted the help of Viners Cody Johns and Robby Ayala who currently have a
combined total of 4 million followers. Johns and Ayala took over Charmin’s Vine
for a period of time and created Vines that they would then re-vine to their
accounts and get the Charmin Vine profile and brand to users. Before using
Viners to create videos, Charmin would only receive a handful of likes on their
posts. Since the help of Johns and Ayala, Charmin’s popularity nearly doubled.
The popular
candy Airheads started a contest for Viners to create their own six-second
commercials on Vine using #Airheadsneeded. This allows users of the community
to take a step further with their creativity as well as saving money for the
company’s advertising. One Vine would be picked to become an actual televised
commercial for Airheads. The company chose comedian and Vine funny man Ry Doon.
Other videos made by Vine users were put onto the Airheads Tumblr page. (PR
Newswire)
Like any growing
internet-based application, many users stretch the limits of what should be
shown on Vine. Within the past couple of weeks, the Vine company has posted a
new terms of service and rules. The major focus of this is to prevent users
from using pornographic material on the site. CNN reports the company made a statement saying, “As we’ve watched
the community and your creativity grow and evolve, we’ve found that there’s a
very small percentage of videos that are not a good fit for our community,”
(Kelly). Vine can only limit what viewers see on the app but want to protect
the sanctity of the niche community. Due to the sexual content that can be seen
on Vine, the recommended user age has been raised from twelve to seventeen. The
new rules ban any sex acts. However, nudity is allowed when used for
educational or artistic purposes such as nude protesting. (Kelly) Other rules
include no imitation, violence, or threats, copyright issues will be taken
seriously, no spamming and more. (Vine)
Vine’s growing
success creates a different form of social media, one that does not incorporate
so many personal feelings such as Facebook and Twitter, but something that
expresses creativity. These short videos are taken seriously by active Vine
users who use special rigs, elaborate story arcs and animation. Like any other
social media site, companies are always seeking advertisement ideas. However,
this new form of advertisement is not as in your face as other site and almost
blends in with the average Vines. Viners have formed a niche community who
share the same entertainment and artistic desire. Despite the new rules of
Vine, the community still seems to grow.
Marissa Himbele
Works Cited
Graser, Marc. "Hollywood’s a Big ‘Twease’ on Vine." Variety, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Kelly, Heather. "Twitter Bans Porn Videos on Vine." CNN. Cable News Network, 06 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Longwell, Todd. "Variety’s
2014 Breakthrough in Technology Winner: Vine." Variety, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram." Small Business Trends, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInstagram versus Vine: Who will come out on top?
ReplyDeleteFirst, let’s begin with Instagram. According to Mark Walsh’s Media Post News, Instagram was the fastest-growing app in 2013. Instagram’s audience has rapidly grown to over 100 million active users, surpassing Twitter by a long shot (Walsh). This was mainly due to their addition of video. In competition with Vine, they hoped that this feature would completely wipe out the popular App. However, this was not the case. But, before we go there, let’s take a look at Instagram’s video features.
Instagram allows their users to take a 15-second video rather than Vine’s 6-second video. Unlike Vine, you can filter the video, edit specific portions, create drafts, stabilize the images, create a cover frame and add it to your Photo map. Also, Instagram allows their users to share videos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Email and foursquare. Vine only allows their users to share videos to Facebook and Twitter. The only features Vine held exclusively were the ability to loop and embed a link to the video.
So, it seems that Instagram has easily won this battle, right? Nope. Vine holds something exclusive to the App that Instagram will probably accomplish. And, that is their solid user base of video-sharing addicts (Crook). Vine users have been able to create extremely creative and usually hilarious videos within the 6-second limit. It is truly the perfect amount of time. Also, with their looping feature, users can add Gif into their videos, which are extremely popular right now.
In an article by Mark O’Neill titled, Vine Continues Growth Depsite Challenge From Instagram, we see how Vine has still added 27 million users since Instagram’s latest innovation. Although it is not the strongest pace, it shows no sign of slowing down. An extremely important point the article discusses is that “both communities are different” (O’Neill).
The Instagram community is true to their pictures. For instance, I just searched the first 25 posts on my IG. Within these posts, only 3 of the 25 were videos, while the other 22 were pictures. Honestly, many, like myself, tend to skip over the videos. First of all, they are usually loud and obnoxious and you cannot view them in public. And, they are 15 seconds. For our generation, who has the attention span of dogs, that is a long time! (I wish I were kidding).
On the other hand, the Vine community is true to their comedians, who are exclusive to the App. Vine’s audience, including myself, cannot wait for their favorite Viners to post something. They will check it multiple times a day. In my opinion, Vine’s audience, although smaller, is much more loyal. Vine comedians, such as Jerome Jarre, Nash Grier, King Bach, Marcus Johns and many others, have made the App what it is. The best part about Vine is that literally anyone can become famous. If you are clever and creative, you can attract followers and get your name out there.
So… it’s a draw!
Works Cited
Crook, Jordan. "Instagram Video Vs. Vine: What’s The Difference?" TechCrunch. N.p., 20 June 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram." Small Business Trends. N.p., 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
Walsh, Mark. "Instagram Fastest-Growing App." MediaPost Publications 01/20/2014. N.p., 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
Who knew by creating streams of six second videos you could become famous and have your own mini community? Marissa, you bring up a very interesting point of the Vine App finding a place niche community in the social media. I personally don’t have an Instagram, but I do remember when the app introduced its video feature in the summer of 2013. Everyone was buzzing about the new video feature for Instagram, and even some of my friends said Instagram will take over Vine due to the new feature leaving Vine in trouble with any success it had left with the masses. However, according to Mark O’Neill’s Small Business Trends article “Vine continues to grow and added 27 million members just since Instagram introduced its video feature Venture Beat reports” (O’Neil). How is Vine still successful despite Instagram having almost twice as many users? I believe like you have stated, because Vine requires users to tell their own stories and be creative in a short period of time, users are attracted to that sense of style. Sort of like our minute pitch projects, in six short seconds, users not only convey emotion, comedy, and mini stories, they also get their point across to viewers.
ReplyDeleteMedia Post News Mark Walsh writes “Facebook was the No. 1 app overall in 2013, but its photo-sharing subsidiary Instagram was the fastest growing app among the top 10” (Walsh) and that’s fine. But that doesn’t mean its video feature can take over Vine. The 15 seconds of fame on Instagram seemed too lengthy for users and actually turned users away from using the video feature and just stuck to its filtered photo sharing side of the app. Vine truly does have its own community, because within that community you can become “Vine Famous”. People like King Bach, Brittany Furlan, Iman Crosson (Alphacat), and Curtis Lepore among others have all accumulated millions of followers who are all interested in what new idea they come up with. On numerous occasions you see Vine celebrities team up together and organize the next great idea for their followers to enjoy and bring a smile upon their day. The realm of comedy allow these vine celebrities to tag one another when appearing in each other’s video; thereby promoting each other’s accounts to their large audiences. People have embraced Vine so much that they create compilation videos of the best vines each month. Using Vine, users have seen make ups and break ups that caused quite a stir within the community and I can’t say Instagram has achieved the same thing.
Businesses are becoming intrigued with Vine and are also exploring various opportunities to grab the attention of the users through their own six second ads. It is becoming clear people want ads that are not only entertaining but are also able to accommodate to their interests. Companies like GE and Lowes have marketed what their brand has to offer and how it can help you using vine through creative videos. Overall, Vine is able to flourish on its capability to bring something innovative to the users. Vine’s community has grown despite other similar apps like Vigi and Viddy and it allows for different stages of originality, imagination, and personality all while stitching together multiple clips into one continuous video.
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram." Small Business Trends, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Walsh, Mark. "Instagram Fastest-Growing App Among Top 10 In 2013." Media Post News. 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014
Cullen Cockrell
Vine, one of the most recent social media phenomenons has become extremely popular amongst many people. Vine features a news feed of 6 second usually comical videos that many social media users share, like, comment on and even post on other forms of social media. These videos are streamed by thousands of people quickly and easily, making it a lot easier for regular everyday people to be “Vine famous,” and have their videos watched by millions across the world.
ReplyDeleteInstagram is also a very popular social media network that has been around longer than Vine. Amongst people that I know Instagram is used more than Vine is. Although people more popularly visit Instagram on a daily basis, Instagram and Vine are popular and used for different reasons. Instagram is known for pictures and Vine is known for short videos. When Vine first hit the social media world it became very well known quickly because it brought something unique to the table that no other application offered, a profile of your own dedicated to only videos. Shortly after Vine was introduced Instagram tried to rise above Vine and create a part of their app where you can make 15 second videos. Although Instagram videos are still popularly used and this was a successful addition to their social media network, I don’t think this took away the full affect that Vine had and still has on it’s own niche market.
To my knowledge both Instagram and Vine do not have advertisement on their social media networks, and this makes them both even more appealing. According to Mark Walsh, “Facebook was the No. 1 app overall in 2013, but its photo-sharing subsidiary Instagram was the fastest-growing app among the top 10.” I believe that these statistics have a lot to do with the advertising aspects of these networks. Although Facebook is used by many and is popular amongst the older generation there are times that its overly advertised homepage are overwhelming. I think this is still the number 1 app because many older people are on it and are not realizing the amount of advertising that they are being exposed to. If I ask any of my friends what is the number 1 app they use most would say Instagram, and I think this shows in Walsh’s statement that it is the fastest-growing app among the top 10.
The article Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram by Mark O’Neill brings up many good points when it comes to the video war between Vine and Instagram. O’Neill explains that when it come to sheer numbers Instagram comes out on top, but although Vine slowed down when Instagram introduced its Video part of their application Vine is continuing to grow and the younger users are gravitating towards it.
The Videos on Instagram and Vine are used for two different things. When I log onto my Vine I scroll through my news feed looking for a quick laugh, and when I come across a video on Instagram it is usually a makeup tutorial, or happy birthday video. These two competitors can both survive in the competitive social media market, while also catering to two different audiences.
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge from Instagram." Small Business Trends 15 Jan. 2014. Web.
Walsh, Mark. "Instagram Fastest-Growing App Among Top 10 In 2013." Media Post News. 17 Jan. 2014. Web.
Social media never ceases to amaze us. Hundreds of applications and websites, or so it seems, are popping up daily. Only the best ones will get recognized, reach success, and gain a dedicated user base. One of the fastest growing apps in 2013 was Instagram, which is devoted to picture sharing and owned by Facebook. In “Instagram Fastest-Growing App Among Top 10 in 2013,” Mark Walsh describes a trend Instagram followed to gain success. He said, “…the growth in social media – especially among teens – is shifting to single-purpose or messaging apps, including Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Whisper and others.” By consolidating pictures on a feed, people are allowed to follow whom they want. It is a very straightforward app that allows photo-lovers to edit their pictures and share them with the world.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Instagram has a huge following and is almost as mainstream as Facebook, Vine has recently exploded. Vine contains many similar features to Instagram – followers, likes, revines, comments. It even has a similar visual setup. What makes Vine different, though, is that it contains 6-second videos. At first, it was hard to get a hang of, and to be honest; I thought it was going to be a flop. Not long after that initial thought, Vine skyrocketed. Regular people became “Vine Famous,” unknown comedians got their jokes heard, and directors had a chance to show their skills.
Vine grew in popularity, which naturally scared other companies and one in particular – Instagram. According to Mark O’Neill in “Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram,” he discusses the bold move Instagram made in hopes of staying on top. He says, “Vine and Instagram seem to be locked in a fight for supremacy after Instagram introduced video clips last summer.” Instagram’s video feature is 15 seconds long, with the expectation that more people would post on their site because of the longer allotted time. It seemed like a good idea, but by that time, people had perfected making Vines and followers were hooked.
Both apps do provide the opportunities for companies to advertise. Famous Viners, such as Nash Grier and Robby Ayala have been in Vines for entertainment companies and advertised for upcoming shows/events. When one of the Viners is in a Vine that isn’t their own, they can revine it to their page. By doing this, they are exposing the companies and other Viners in their videos. Although 6 seconds is short, they skillfully get a message across, which is why the app has become so popular. Vine also has a different sense of community than Instagram does. The “Vine Famous” people usually have meet-ups where they can meet their fans. In a way, I feel that the community is stronger within Vine. Most of the successful Viners are ordinary people, so they are more relatable & post everyday situations that we can laugh about.
Works Cited
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge from Instagram." Small Business Trends 15 Jan. 2014. Web.
Walsh, Mark. "Instagram Fastest-Growing App Among Top 10 In 2013." Media Post News. 17 Jan. 2014. Web.
ReplyDeleteScott Wong
Marissa, I think you brought up something really interesting when you mentioned the advertising capabilities of Vine. You mentioned companies such as Fox, Airhead’s, and Charmin’s when listing off which big name brands were dipping their toes into the Vine media market. As far as I know, those brands are all household names. With established businesses getting into the Vine making market now, I think it’s an indication that we’ll begin to see a lot more niche marketing campaigns.
Personally, I don’t have a Vine, but you don’t need to have one to know how fast the clip-sharing service has grown. Although it might not have as many registered users when compared to Instagram, a similar application; Vine still outperforms Instagram when it comes to content activity among users (O’Neill). Scroll through any entertainment news site and I’m almost certain you’ll find a Vine compilation or some sorts.
An interesting reading from the course material I thought could be relevant, mentions another social media platform called Pinterest. The article talks about how Pinterest was starting to incorporate analytics into their platform to track content (Delo). They expand on that by giving the example of a retailer who can determine through the data from the analytics that there’s a supposed trend of the color “red”. Using analytics, they could incorporate their findings with their content strategies.
What I’m trying to get at is, what would the capabilities of a company like Vine be if they incorporated analytics? By having the ability to measure and gauge your audience and users, you gain a bit of an insight when it comes to their interests; likes and dislikes. Having that information at hand could make it easier for companies trying to determine the most effective way of reading their audience.
Using the data, social media startups (Vine, Pinterest), can partner up with big brand names (Charmin, Airheads, Fox), figure out smarter ways reaching and engaging their audiences and users. We can start to see more niche tv, and internet advertisements that are tailored made for our interests. Corporate brands are going to continue finding innovative ways to reach and engage their target markets. With the popularity of social media platforms, analyzing user habits may give brands much needed insight in relating to their users.
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge from Instagram." Small Business Trends 15 Jan. 2014. Web.
Delo, Cotton. "Pinterest Launches Web Analytic to Track Popular Content." Advertising Age. 12 March 2013. Web.
Vine, and its’ basic concept, is unlike anything social media has previously experienced or been exposed to. When it was first introduced it was revolutionary in its own way. People could make mini versions of youtube videos, commercials, biographies, etc. In the months since its creation Vine has garnered a solid crowd base of users, with the number of users hitting 40 million almost a year ago. (Longwell). One may think with the abbreviated nature of vine, the videos only being 6 seconds long, that the creators may have just picked a random number with no thought process. If you did however, you’d be wrong. The six second window was a calculated time window, and not the first time length the three co-creators experimented with (Longwell). The ascension to success has not been without challenges however. Halfway through 2013, Instagram also launched its own short video program. These videos could be up to fifteen seconds long, over twice the length of vine videos, but the addition of the feature to Instagram hasn’t seemed to slow Vine’s rapid growth. While Instagram has more overall users, Vine’s growth has been at an almost exponential rate, increasing just over 400% in 2013 alone (O’Neil). Instagram also takes the cake in terms of the fastest growing app of 2013 (Walsh), but its’ niche market is that of pictures, not videos. While I have seen personal evidence that some people do use the video feature, I personally believe that the app’s bread and butter is, and will still remain to be in picture sharing, not short videos. It was what the app was originally created for, and for good reason. I’m basing this on the fact that Vine was created with the sole purpose of short video sharing, and that people use the app to publicize themselves, gain a fan base full of “followers” before they have even landed a single movie role. I personally think that it’s an effective tool, citing the fact that I personally follow several aspiring actors and love their skits. This popularity and creativity can also be used for commercial purposes, which some companies like Charmin have recently utilized. Using two “vine famous” actors, they created a mini movement following, reaching over 4 million Vine users. It also seems as though Vine users have been exploring many more types, or categories of storytelling than Instagram video users. For instance, actual searchable categories such as comedy, animals, and special FX are all part of Vine’s unique niche media platform. With the trends in social media of the last year, it seems as though Vine’s place in the social media market is solidified, albeit one of limited growth. Vine has a dedicated following of users and consumers, and the emergence of Instagram on the short video scene didn’t effect their numbers much. They question is can Vine continue to find ways to innovate their product and stay relevant, thus not fading into obscurity and becoming just another irrelevant fad in the history of social media.
ReplyDeleteLongwell, Todd. "Variety’s 2014 Breakthrough in Technology Winner: Vine." Variety, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
O'Neill, Mark. "Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram." Small Business Trends, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Walsh, Mark. “Instagram-Fastest Growing App Among Top 10 In 2013.” Media Post News. January 17, 2014