Instagram to Vine: Mine’s Bigger Than Yours


Last week, Facebook announced that there will be video capabilities on their owned platform Instagram. 
What were the first impressions of the announcement?

When Twitter launched Vine, there was a bit of a murmur amongst the creative users of social media as their juices flowed and original content starting coming in from everywhere. There was also a little bit of a controversy to do with Porn films, but any news is good for a brand right? It is grown in popularity amongst brands and users alike. I tend to not have that much creativity in me, so my Vine feed consists of running clips.

The idea was a good one – the sort that works with social networks; simple, short and able to integrate with other platforms; very similar assets that Instagram had when they launched.

So what have Facebook done? Well they’ve decided to jump on the video sharing wagon – the idea is very similar to Vine – a short loop that is shareable on other platforms only you have 15 seconds to play with AND the usual filters so make it all Instagram-y.

Looking at it, they’ve done well to integrate the video with the photos on the Instagram app feed. The filming functionality is exactly like Vine’s, if not a little busier (I suppose that’s the difference between Facebook and Twitter; Facebook always has a lot more going on in the interface than Twitter). I also particularly like the filter called Dogpatch – purely for the name. Also Vine makes it easier to tap any part of the screen to film, whereas you are limited to the button on Instagram (something that screams #firstworldproblems).

So, what does this mean?

You could look at this from two sides. On one hand, it makes sense for all of these networks to move to video as mobile data increases and the limits of image sharing is reached; video is just the next step for these guys to move to. On the other, it SCREAMS competitiveness and greed on Facebook’s part. The need for a monopoly in social is usually played so subtly, but Facebook appear to have downright said ‘we can do that – and better’. Is it also a move to increase the advertising value of Instagram?

On my part, I’m still a little shocked at the move by Facebook – surely they have other things to sort out in house before making such moves?
Certainly this will split the Vine audience and take users away from that platform to Instagram (the creatives were the first on Instagram too); and I’m sure Vine will struggle to ensure their loyal audience stays. Which is a shame; I like Vine – I like its simplicity, the looping and the integration with Twitter. I really hope this hasn’t been a lost battle.

As for the war of the Social Networks – things have just got MUCH dirtier. I wonder what will happen next.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Smartwatches - Future Technology With Backwards Thinking

Image
Last year, I became one of the self-named 'early adopters' who jumped on a bandwagon that was going at full speed - I ordered a Pebble watch. I had a choice of colours - white, grey, red, orange and black; I chose grey as my female fashion mind said 'grey will go with anything and white will get too dirty'. Because Pebble was THE buzz, as was Kickstarter, I had to wait three months for the watch to arrive. Lo and behold it did and I was SUPER excited. For those that don't know, the Pebble watch is one of the first smartwatches with actual usability - by connecting via bluetooth to your iPhone and Android through a smartphone app. It uses ePaper techology meaning the battery lasts a good few days and doesn't take long to charge. From there, it accesses your notifications, and any you have set to alert, will appear on your watch. Not only that, you can control your music, answer calls, and develop and download watch apps (I particularly like Snake). The Run
Read more

An introduction

An introduction to my 'professional' blog. Due to the length of my Masters dissertation which is long and complicated enough to go grey after reading only half of it, I have decided to break my theories and research down into blogs.  I could try to write it up and have it published in an academic journal, but from the eyes of Charles Leadbeater , it would be almost hypocritical of me to do that, seeing as I am writing about a completely free marketing tool - social media. So why not share my ideas in the form I'm writing about? So let me introduce myself: I have just completed a Masters in Cultural Management where I specialised in Social Networking, Music Marketing and Promotion (dissertation title). I am currently living in Wiltshire, after spending five years in the wonderful city of Newcastle. I have lived in Atlanta, Georgia for a year and would love to go back to The States at some point, but for now I'm in the UK.  Right now? I'm looking for jobs in the
Read more

Stage 1: The context of social networking and its relevance with musicians

I've tried to keep this short - I'm sorry, it's not!                         Social networks are BIG (if you hadn't noticed). Facebook has over 500 million members - that is nearly 15% of the world's population (Google Public Data, Jess' calculations). 90% of Britain is online; news sites all over the web (BBC, Guardian, Times) have social networking areas, reporting specifically about the influence and happenings in the social networking world.  News Media Social networking            Though there are few theorists on the subject, social networking is providing a lot of reading matter with ‘how to’ books. The few theorists on social media, generally appreciate that social networking is the result of the Web 2.0 phenomenon – which is often seen as outdated now.          The term Web 2.0 emerged in the mid 2000s as the web saw an increase of forums and file sharing sites, a contrast to the hands off world wide web of the 90s. There was a general view that
Read more