When Twitter introduced their mobile video service called Vine in January, people wondered if there is a need for another social media platform at the already crowded party. Vine keeps things simple with only six seconds of recording time and no editing features. The videos play on a continuous loop. Vine’s a natural fit for the fashion industry with videos of the latest trends and how-to’s. Fashion house Marc Jacobs uses Vine to highlight their shows during fashion week, but goes a step further and features videos of their staff and the day-to-day side of their business.

But what about your small business? Vine videos are nice bite-sized pieces of content that fit inside the bigger picture of your marketing plan. Like its big sister Twitter, Vine videos are a way to engage customers on social media but it would be ridiculous to build your entire marketing plan around it. You can use Vine to create short and sweet testimonials from your customers that you can then embed in your established content channels. Once you’ve collected enough testimonials, they can be placed in a dedicated page on your website. Let people see your business from an insider’s point of view with videos capturing behind-the-scenes action. You might think the typical office setting is boring, but your customers will enjoy a light-hearted video showcasing your employees.

Tell Me About the Technical Stuff

The only constraints are a maximum of six seconds per video and your imagination — good taste is a given. Oh, you’ll need an iPhone since the app isn’t available for Android yet. Each Vine app update adds more functionality and they’ve added a share button so you can push your social media video to Facebook or get the code to embed the video on your website using basic HTML code. The videos lend themselves really well to stop motion photography with its tap and hold video recording and you’d be surprised how much you can get into six seconds. General Electric’s chemistry of coffee uses the stop motion technique for a clever post made with copy paper.

Will Vine change everything we’ve known about content marketing? No. If it fits in with what you’re already doing, try it out.  It’s a nice additional tool that’s easy to use and can give your business some extra personality.