You might be laboring under the misapprehension that 10 seconds isn’t enough time to accomplish anything.
You’re wrong.
It takes 7 seconds for the brain to form a positive or negative impression of a new acquaintance and two-tenths of a second to establish a first impression of a website.
Even frisky lions can wrap up a mating session in under 6 seconds flat – pretty impressive when you consider that’s little more than it will take you to finish this sentence.
With all that can be achieved in this miniscule snippet of time, it’s little wonder that Vine’s popularity has grown like a weed. A micro-video app owned by Twitter, Vine caters to our ever-dwindling attention spans by allowing users to record and share videos in 6-second loops.
With over 40 million active users worldwide, many bands are now successfully using the app as an effective short-form marketing tool.
Through the Grapevine
In internet years Vine is still in the infancy of its development, so few users have managed to attract large followings.
This means that early adopters and musicians have a unique opportunity to carve out niche markets and discover exactly what the platform is capable of.
How to Branch Out
1. Media appearances
Record a Vine about any upcoming media appearances. Absurdity and fun are common themes among the most popular Vine videos, so keep your content light, creative and entertaining.
2. Teaser videos
Create short teaser clips. Whet the appetite of fans by only sharing the bare minimum you’d like them to see. Good subjects for winning videos are pre-show warm-ups, recording sessions, or exclusive sneak peeks of an upcoming album cover.
Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’ teaser is one of the best recent examples of this strategy generating a fan frenzy in the lead up to their album release.
3. Behind the scenes
Fans go wild for behind-the-scenes footage of their favourite band, so post snippets from tours, shows, footage of cooking misadventures or clips of unwitting after-party incidents with band members.
Literally anything can be used to promote your band. Take a look at how musician, Noah Wall, created an interactive song by using ordinary household objects, for example.
4. Live footage
Take a clip from a live gig, especially if you have more shows left in a tour. This builds anticipation and excitement for fans, who love seeing things from a musician’s perspective, and will try to pick themselves out from the crowd.
5. Involve fans
Accumulate a backlog of unique videos of your band by asking fans to shoot live footage of you on stage.
This provides your Vine channel with two unrepeatable features: firstly, an interesting series of clips shot from different user perspectives; secondly, an ongoing supply of user-curated content.
Don’t forget to remind fans to hashtag you!
6. Think outside the Vine
Create a themed video series that tells a story in multiple parts – moving word art messages or flip books, for example. Many bands are also creating 6-second mini-video clips. If produced compellingly, this can capture the imagination of fans, luring them to listen to your full track, saving you the time, effort and the expense of filming an entire 3-4 minute clip.
Engage fans by holding a competition and offer a private meeting, free merchandise or another relevant incentive.
—————-
When developing ideas for videos, remember that life is pretty insular for most fans, who are likely to be stuck working an ordinary 9-5 pm day job. Vine affords a beautiful and rare snapshot into life through someone else’s viewfinder. Paint fans a pretty picture of your experiences in music and you will easily capitalize on this fountain of free promotion.
A lot can happen in 6 seconds.
Make each one count.
Via Tunecore
