Twitter recently announced its decision to permanently shut down Vine, the iconic six-second video-sharing platform. The release sparked an enormous amount of curiosity among the public but no signs of tears shed. After hearing his creation had been disposed of, Yusupov responded with one simple tweet: “Don’t sell your company!”
Vine was originally introduced as an everyday-post video tool, but quickly morphed into a channel for creativity. After being sold to Twitter at four years old, Vine couldn’t keep up with Instagram’s launch of the 15-second video feature or Snapchat’s introduction of 10-second stories in 2013. Additionally, Vine didn’t necessarily do a good job with marketing or adapting to a changing audience. For the four years of Vine’s existence, the app had only changed minor apparel features. By the time Vine added more seconds to its video looping, its users were already long gone, and the company was on the brink of extinction.
Vine’s audience participation became too limited. The only videos that were frequently re-vined were the witty, creative ones. Users who frequently posted hilarious vines became viral and were deemed ‘Vine celebrities.’ Eventually, everyone only kept their account to watch the same Vine celebrities. I attempted to vine when it was first released and only posted four videos, because I realized I wasn’t witty or creative enough with video recording. The pressure to be humorous limited the younger generation’s desire to post. As we all know, once teenagers start using a new app, parents follow. However, not enough millennials stuck with it. Additionally, Vine never became an outlet for celebrities or businesses to take leverage.
From a public relations perspective, we can take away three lessons from Vine’s collapse: always plan out social media strategy, anticipate growth, and make sure your target audience isn’t too limited.