Vine’s a new and intriguing tool that allows you to post video on Twitter. The app, which Twitter owns, limits each video to six seconds long–a limitation that’s not unlike your basic Twitter limit of 140 characters. You can’t do a whole lot in six seconds, but you don’t have to.

Video on Twitter Lends Itself to Certain Kinds of Subjects

That six-second limitation means that you’re not making a complex point in any video on Twitter. But we think that businesses and nonprofits will be exploring the possibilities Vine offers (or perhaps a competing app with similar specs) for a long time to come. Here’s a video on Twitter that we made:
You can see how fast and furious this video passes; as such it’s important that video on Twitter have a small amount of content. As Hubspot warns, doing too much, as the Gap did with their video on Twitter, can overwhelm the viewer. However, the evolution of a logo makes a great Vine video. Some other possible uses:
  • Six seconds with your employees. Especially if your employees do hands-on work like disaster clean-up, say, or chemistry. Watching them at their desks isn’t very interesting, but if most of your organization’s work is done at their desk, there are other possibilities–like the next bullet.
  • Six seconds with your beneficiaries or customers or members. If your employees don’t have hands-on responsibilities, they probably help someone that does. See if you can post six seconds with the people that you train online to follow government regulations.
  • Six seconds of fun. Does the course of your business include sports or other dynamic activities? Show those in a video.
For more inspiration, check out what’s been posted to Vine recently. Or to look for videos on Twitter that relate to a particular keyword, click here and then change the word “keyword” in your browser to whatever you want. Perhaps you’d like to look for videos on Twitter related to nonprofit or, say, basketball.

Video on Twitter–Using Professional Video Producers

It may not be practical to bring us in every day to help you make a six-second video.  Also,  posting video on Twitter suggests up-to-the-minute updates, and the structure of the app limits your ability to make a really professional-looking video. Still, there are a variety of ways we can help enhance any use of Vine you decide on. Some possibilities include:
  1. Marketing strategy. We have a good idea of how you can use video, even short ones, to market your business or organization. We can help you create a simple plan for Vine based on your goals.
  2. Let us teach you a little bit about handling a camera so your videos come out looking better.
  3. Let us film a cache of six-second videos you can roll out for a key initiative, like in the lead-up to a special event.
Whether you decide to post video on Twitter or wait to see how the genre develops—it’s certainly in its infancy now—one thing’s for sure, it’s just one more data point in favor of video as a key medium for communicating on the web. Do you have a favorite Vine video on Twitter? Let us know in the comments! All this month comment for a chance to win a drawing for a free evaluation of your YouTube Channel. If MiniMatters can help you with business video, fundraising video, association video, or other video production needs, we’d love to provide an estimate through our online form, talk with you at 301-339-0339, or communicate via email at [email protected]. We serve associations, foundations, nonprofits, and businesses primarily in Washington, DC, Maryland, and northern Virginia.