It only takes a few thumb taps for BYU junior Kimberlie Haner to open the Vine application on her iPhone, capture a six-second video and send it into a feed of videos from other Vine users that includes a clip of Jimmer wheeling through a grocery store on a shopping cart and U.S. gold medalist Shawn Johnson giving a cheerful thumbs up.
Vine, a six-second video sharing application for the iPhone, was purchased by Twitter and released on Jan. 24 as the site’s newest social media platform. Business media experts and avid social media users were quick to jump on the Vine bandwagon, but a short-lived pornography controversy placed the application on the national radar, furthering its dissemination.
BYU grad Darrian Watts monitors social media trends for Jibe Media and was one of the first to see Vine come on to the scene.
“I saw Vine come into prominence with a lot of creatives — I saw it on blogs and websites,” Watts said. “People were using their own social platforms to promote their Vine account, and I think it really had a jump-start because it was related to Twitter.”
However, despite its instant popularity, Vine underwent a “service interruption” five days after its release as news of pornographic content proliferated by the application rapidly spread through the media. According to Watts, this was anything but a setback.
“In this world where information travels so fast, people talking about your product in any way isn’t bad,” Watts said. “The moment the issues are resolved, people are going to download the app just to check it out.”
In response to the initial reports of pornography, Twitter placed warning messages on inappropriate videos, censored pornography-related searches and announced that users can report videos as inappropriate within the product.
As issues are resolved and downloads increase, Watts predicts Vine will overtake other popular video services such as YouTube and Vimeo because of its ability to relay information in stride with Twitter’s instantaneous pace. The challenge for Vine users is to create engaging, creative content.
“My one qualm with Vine is that some of the footage can be a bit mundane,” Watts said. “But if you can position your content in the right way, it can become interesting.”
In addition to being a creative outlet for the media-savvy generation, Watts believes Vine will become a powerful business tool.
“Businesses and brands can use Vine to really show their authentic side,” Watts said. “Things are shifting towards raw, authentic content.”
BYU graduate student Tyler King coordinates social media for the BYU Salt Lake Center and plans to use Vine as a part of his media strategy.
“I think it’s a great way to tell a really quick story,” King said. “I’ve been trying to figure out the kind of stories that fit Vine that could let BYU students know about the Salt Lake Center, as well as the kind of stories that will make them want to take classes up there.”
King said he sees Vine as a convenient way for consumers to connect with businesses.
“More and more people are viewing social media on their phones, and they don’t want to watch a five-minute video — they want it to be short, simple and to the point,” King said. “Vine is perfect for that.”
Although King is focusing on practical uses for the application, he still has fun with it in his spare time.
“I have a three-year-old daughter, and I made a video of her crazy little dance,” King said.
BYU senior Brianna Rios is more hesitant to integrate Vine into her personal life.
“Many of the people I follow will post videos of their pets and kids, which is a little scary because most of the time you don’t know who exactly is following you,” Rios said. “I would most use Vine to document funny events, the world around me, and what I’m doing for the day.”
