Social Media Update. What’s Vine and how can you benefit from using it

Vine, is a social media app that lets users share six-second videos, has shutdown after 4 years.

Some of the biggest companies around are tech giants and many of the top dogs are social media providers. We’ve grown so accustomed to tech start-ups taking the world by storm and making millions along the way, it’s easy to forget they don’t all reach such heights.

The best laid plans

The reason Vine stands out though was their apparent success and the perceived benefits of the six second video time. Vine became one of the routes to Internet stardom like Instagram or YouTube before it. “Viners” who were using it were able to sign sponsorship deals, some pushing into the millions. Others made their way from Vine into the mainstream like the musicians Shawn Mendes and Ruth B.

Of mice and men

Vine was unable to capitalise on this success. The app couldn’t be monetised. You can’t pre or post roll ads on a six-second video and no one is going to click on sponsored content. Twitter bought Vine to use in a similar way Facebook use Instagram. Vine would feed users to Twitter who would display ads and make money.

Often go awry

Twitter has also struggled to make the most of their user base. The fast paced micro-blog site suffers from it’s own model. Ads get buried quickly under the large volume of posts, to users who are accustomed to tuning out most of what they see. This makes their ads very low value for marketers despite their huge popularity.

The closing of Vine is seen by some as a cost cutting method by Twitter. They now include short video posting on Twitter, so they clearly aren’t opposed to the idea. “Viners” however feel abandoned. Many are moving to YouTube and Facebook where they say they’ll have better access to their audience than Twitter.

Social media is a competitive market

In a social media rich market and an ever-changing industry Twitter have done well. But with the steady decline in profit reported each quarter and experts predicting the same in April, will they be able to turn things around in 2017?

(The Vine logo is owned by Vine Labs, Inc. and the logo use in this blog is not authorised by, sponsored by or associated with Vine Labs, Inc.)