Vine Has New Features and They Rock

Vine is a crazy concept.  Make a video that is under 6 seconds but has the content and reach of a video that’s 6 minutes.  How is that even possible?  How can we even do that?

Well, there are a lot of people and a lot of brands that have mastered Vine.  During Halloween this year multiple big name brands, particularly Oreo and Tide, rolled out Vine campaigns that were outstanding.  They captured the essence of the brand while be incredibly entertaining in only 6 seconds.  Brands aren’t even just using Vine on Halloween, they use the platform constantly to show off their products in short, visual ways.

The Tide Vines were awesome.

In essence, Vine is the perfect video platform.  The attention span of the average Internet and social media user is going down.  YouTube videos over the 2 minute mark are being considered too long, even ads longer than 30 seconds are pushing it.  Audiences today want to be engaged immediately and then move on just as quickly.  Vine is perfect for this.  It’s 6 seconds of fast paced video that’s so short it has to be engaging because it’s over before you know it.

The trouble with Vine is that the average social media user is probably confused by it.  Yes, Vine has taken off as a social media platform, but the people making crazy cool videos are artists and creatives who have an exceptional handle on video platforms.  What about the average user? 

In October, Vine included new features to make it more user friendly.  Two new tools were introduced: Sessions, which allows users to save drafts of videos and come back to finish them, and Time Travel, a tool that allows users to remove, reorganize and replace parts of the video within the post before it gets published.

Thanks to Mashable for taking screenshots of the new features, the top picture is Time Travel and the bottom picture is Sessions.

I tried out these new features, because I am someone who finds it difficult to make cool and engaging Vine videos.  First off, the Sessions tool is a godsend.  Having the ability to make drafts of videos and save them after exiting the app is great, because one of the biggest flaws of Vine I had seen before was that videos had to be taken in the moment and posted right away.  Time Travel is interesting because it allows you to easily move the different shots around within the overall Vine.

I personally believe that Vine is a platform that isn’t going away anytime soon.  Yes, Instagram video is longer and has filters, but Vine is a pure video platform along the lines of YouTube.  I think that if brands continue to use Vine in the ways they did during Halloween and presumably will use it during Christmas, then the platform will only expand.  Including user friendly tools such as Session and Time Travel only up it’s appeal to the general public and as our attention spans continue to decrease, Vine will stick around to entertain us in 6 seconds or less.

Check out my time traveling Vine: https://vine.co/v/hUnxetbDbEm

Pinterest is Taking Over Social Media

This year has been about growth for Pinterest.  The platform started out as being “exclusive,” meaning you had to request to join.  Then, it seemed like the only people using Pinterest were young women, pinning pictures of clothing, food, and exercise ideas.  However, in 2013 Pinterest has made serious changes in order to grow as a social media platform and they seem to be working.

Announced in May, Pinterest partnered with several major brands, such as Target, ModCloth, and Sony, to include more descriptive pins in a new format.  These pins will now include information such as the pricing for products, or recipe descriptions that are directly on the pin, meaning users no longer have to switch back and forth between sites for information.  This is incredibly beneficial to brands because it gives them a stronger presence on the site.  Previously, users would find a pin, not know its source, click on the pictures and potentially be taken to a website that held no information about the product or picture.  Now, brands are more interactive on the pin, allowing users a chance to interact directly with the brand while on the Pinterest site.

An example of new pins on Pinterest.

In September, Pinterest announced their new article pins.  Before, when users pinned articles on Pinterest only the photo from the article with a link on the bottom were featured.  Now, the article title, author’s name, article description and a larger link will be on the pin.  The goal behind this was for users on Pinterest to pin more articles from news sources.

Even more recently Pinterest announced location pins, where users can create pinboards for specific cities, neighborhoods, and for mapping out travel plans.  The new feature allows users to “add a map” on a new board or existing board to add “Place Pins” to add the location of where a pin is from so other users can go directly to a restaurant or store where the product is.

I tried out the new location pins.

Pinterest has also been expanding overseas.  The company recently announced that they will be expanding into Scandinavian countries by adding language capabilities for Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.  Pinterest already has French and UK capabilities, and they have offices in London, Paris, and Tokyo.

I have always thought that brands tend to overlook or misuse Pinterest and part of that isn’t their fault but rather had to do with faults on the site itself.  That being said, new descriptive pins with an emphasis on content sharing and growth to an overseas market show immense promise for the future of Pinterest.  In the past I thought there were some brands that would never be able to make it on Pinterest because they weren’t consumer based, but if Pinterest becomes a site that includes consumer products and news content sharing, it has the opportunity to be used by a much wider audience.  Rolling out these new capabilities shows that Pinterest has longevity and the ability to reach more than just one audience.  I’ll be interested to see what new growth they make in the future, but focusing on becoming a content sharing site will separate them from Facebook and Twitter, and make Pinterest a platform that everyone and every brand can use.

Check out my Vine exploring the new Pinterest features: https://vine.co/v/hUnjvUlQxTr