We’ve all watched social media become an integral part of PR in recent years and now we are seeing image and video messaging become an integral part of social media.

A lot of the social media conversations this month revolve around Twitter’s new Vine app. If you search #vine or #vineapp on Twitter you are not only going to find personal tweets from users utilizing the app to showcase how they crafted a flawless, vegan, gluten-free sandwich. Quite the opposite in fact, you’ll find that over 1/3 of the first 15 tweets are about how Vine can be used for a myriad of marketing communications strategies.

With the recent explosion of Vine onto the social media scene, many have related its practical uses to creating brand awareness and marketing communications, but it has yet to be spelled out as to how public relations professionals can use the app to benefit their clients or agency. Here are 5 suggestions for those wishing to make the most of the app that is quite literally, growing more popular by the day.

Improve Press Releases

PR Newswire analyzed more than 10,000 press releases  and found that the more multimedia that gets included in press materials, the more views the materials garner. Vine is not only another form of multimedia PR pros can include in a release; it is trending.

But users beware—simply including a 6-second Vine with a press release does not necessarily mean it adds to the release. Use Vine to help your press release stand out by enhancing the story. Make sure that your Vine has a distinct beginning, middle and end—be sure it is clear what actually happens in the Vine.

Enhance B2C Communication

Don’t just tweet about the cool things your clients are doing, show them! Whenever an opportunity presents itself for you to tell a story or showcase any action of the client, do so!

Like you would on Twitter, use Vine to encourage customer interaction. Above everything else, PR pros should view Vine as another social platform. Take a cue from Instagram—the artsy photo sharing app that quickly transformed from a place to display stunning sepia-toned pictures of flowers into a strong social network. So strong in fact that Facebook acquired the app for $1 billion. Now, we are seeing the same scenario occur with Vine. Let’s run through the checklist:

• Unique format (6 second gif/video capabilities) for sharing multi-media? Check.
• Newsfeed-like design that encourages interaction amongst users? Check.
• App is acquired by a socialmMedia giant (Twitter) and integrated into other social media platforms? Check.
• Brands increase presence and showcase products using the social media platform? Check.

Event Promotion

Use hashtags on Vine to promote events. Whether a representative of your agency is attending a PR conference or your client is holding an annual event, use your “Vine eye” to create a Vine that communicates an interesting element of the event and then use a hashtag to encourage others to do the same.

Make your message stronger by browsing Twitter to see which hashtags people are already using to Tweet about the event and then move the conversation to Vine by integrating the same hashtags. The last thing you want to do is contribute to any sort of confusion. Keep your messaging cohesive across all social media platforms.

Agency Branding

Put a face to your agency. Use Vine to showcase the individuals who build your agency. Utilize the relatively simple but wowing techniques of Vine, such as a creating a 360 degrees view of your cool looking office.

Show-off the bright, smiling faces of your account executives, a behind the scenes look that draws a personal connection between the public and your agency. This will require some strategy as you don’t want to catch an employee at an embarrassing moment.  In addition, you want to make sure that you find someone in the agency that is at the very least proficient in using the Vine app.

Showcase the Creative Process

Chances are, you use a white board or easel pad for your creative planning sessions and these are the perfect times to use Vine. Why? Because you can clearly show a process—you can show where the idea starts, what gets added to it, what gets erased and what the final outcome is. There is a lot of opportunity to get creative here. Take cues from #Hubspot on Vine, who has already mastered white board story-telling on Vine.

If your agency has a creative or digital team, use Vine to showcase these processes as well. Show a designer’s development of a client logo or graphic—from its initial concept sketch to its final send-off to print. This requires relatively little creative juice as all that is needed for this kind of Vine is clear documentation of the process. On the other hand, some Vines require the user to be more creative and to actually create a visual process for showing something that might be more content or text based.

For example, how can you create an interesting Vine of the development of a press release? One of the cool aspects to Vine is that you can choose the scope you display—you can highlight one word on a page or an entire release. Tell the story of creating a news release and showcase the process; display the vacancy of a page with one word on it all the way to a finished release. Incorporate a human element—show the writer’s “brain-storming” facial expression or the depletion of coffee as they write—the possibilities are nearly endless.

Here at Caliber, we are right there with you when it comes to getting acquainted with Vine. Join us in this exciting learning process and see what new uses for the app are sure to develop in the near future.

---

---