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Tweets and Vine, Intertwined

Posted At: February 19, 2013 12:35 P.M.
by Grayson Martin

The latest advancements in technology and mobile devices have given birth to a social media boom that shows no signs of slowing down. Numerous social media platforms have provided PR practitioners with a plethora of tools to use in order to get their clients’ messages across.

Social media giant Facebook made a huge power move almost a year ago when it bought Instagram. Now Twitter has recently made a move of its own by acquiring the mobile video app called Vine. Vine allows you to record up to six seconds of looping video, very similar to a GIF. Vine is currently a free download in the iTunes App Store.

I can already see Vine becoming a powerful tool for those in the PR field. Before incorporating Vine, Twitter was unique in that it cut out a lot of the clutter and distractions offered by other social media sites, but you also had to get your message across using only 140 characters. This forced practitioners to cut their own fluff to deliver a short and concise message that would not lose readers’ attention. Allotting only six seconds of video time on Vine is equivalent to 140 characters, but Vine’s set-up also allows you to be much more creative, because so much more can be said with video.

When you use the Vine app, you touch your screen to start recording. As soon as you remove your finger, it stops recording. This allows you to include multiple short clips of video that enable you to produce creative videos. You can record stop-motion style videos and give life to inanimate objects by moving it little by little as you record its progression frame by frame.

The creative possibilities are what excite me the most. Our publics are so accustomed to run-of-the-mill news articles and advertisements. It is when we can deliver a unique, imaginative message that we make a lasting impression on someone. I can still vividly remember some of the more creative and inspiring advertisements that caught my eye and made me think twice about what I saw.

Some great PR uses for Vine would be to give quick promos of an upcoming event or to publish live look-ins to an event to spark intrigue from followers. Another neat idea would be to provide followers behind-the-scenes clips of what goes unnoticed at your client’s everyday job. Mashable provides an interesting look at what proactive companies are already doing with the new Vine app.

It will be interesting to see how Vine progresses and whether it will really catch on as a social media staple and as a PR professional’s communication tool of choice. I would urge everyone to give it a try. To get a jump start, check out the Vine community to see what others are doing and what is trending. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my first Vine production. What do you plan to do with your first Vine post?

 

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