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Will Vine Become The Next MySpace?

Date published: July 05, 2013
Last updated: July 5, 2013

All the way back in 2011, Instagram CEO and cofounder Kevin Systrom said that video made sense for his platform. And now that Instavideo is upon us, we can’t help but wonder if Vine CEO Dick Costolo is thinking the same about photos—after all, Instagram appears to be strangling Vine’s growth. But that doesn’t mean Vine is doomed.

Instagram and Vine have shown up in headlines this week accompanied by a graph that includes some telling numbers around video sharing.

Bottom line: sharing Vine videos on Twitter has plummeted, while Instagram sharing has spiked with the launch of Instavideo. It’s not that Instagram is receiving an influx of new users now that they offer a video feature; instead, they’re simply providing additional sharing opportunities to their current users on a familiar platform. So, what propelled the change in app popularity? And why should marketers care?

Snapping up audiences

Marketers with large Instagram followings will want to take advantage of Instagram’s video feature by utilizing it selectively. As discussed on the blog last week, both platforms offer a different user experience and different opportunities for brands to reach their audiences. For instance, home improvement giant Lowes created its popular Fix in Six Vine videos using Vine, offering quick tips for DIYers.

But videos from the first brands to use Instagram lean toward storytelling: fashion names like Burberry and Lululemon, athletes like Tony Hawk and megabrand General Electric use the platform to give viewers an inside look at their brands from a different perspective.

Instagram’s 15-second platform also offers clip collage capabilities similar to six-second Vine, but with a delete option that allows users to select a certain clip and delete it from the sequence:

Additionally, the unique filters can be applied to Instagram’s photos can also be applied to video elements. In other words, Instagram video option has more options, and it lets you take advantage of a well cultivated historic following. These features allow for more artistic videos, which could speak to a specific kind of brand and its audience more clearly than a choppy six-second clip.

So what’s next for Vine? Will the service keep its solid brand user base, or is it destined for a new direction?

The new history of the old MySpace

Let’s reminisce about our dear friend MySpace.com, a site that suffered a fate similar to what Vine’s might be. MySpace was a trailblazer in the social media space: it introduced the concept of social media to millions of young users, allowed marketers to find and engage with audiences and made instant and constant online contact a normal part of Internet life.

But despite Justin Timberlake’s best efforts, the new MySpace is a shadow of its former self. Facebook debuted in the mid-2000s and did social media better, attracting a much larger and diverse following. The rest is history. A recent Forbes article, “How Facebook Beat MySpace,” suggests MySpace “gave up on its social media leadership dreams and narrowed its focus to the niche of being a “social entertainment destination.””

Vine could stake its future on a similar path—offering a particular target audience a set of tools that allows them to speak directly to their communities. While Vine may compete with Instagram’s audience, the unique features it offers to a video audience—looping and a six-second creative challenge—could keep a niche audience of videographers, cinematographers and creative marketers busy. And that’s not a bad thing.

Has your brand dropped Vine for Instagram? Are you sticking with Vine? Or, have you not jumped on the short video craze just yet? Drop a line below!

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