Standing On the Corner of #Instagram and #Vine

You want to know how quickly the social media world is evolving? Up until yesterday, this blog post was supposed to be all about Vine.  As you know, Vine is the Twitter-friendly app that allows you to take and tweet 6 second video clips.

The app is (or should I say was) gaining huge popularity among the multicultural audience--which already over-indexes for Twitter usage.


But then, this announcement happened...

Facebook's Video Service for Instagram Will Compete With Twitter's Vine.

And all of a sudden my topic became the Mother Theresa's death of compelling stories.  No one???  No one remembers that she died the same day as Princess Di?  Jesus people, read a book every once in a while.  But I digress.

By the time you read this, Instagram will have the capability to offer video to its users, with some pretty interesting innovations.  You can check it out on this video from Vimeo.

But my job here is to provide some insight on how this will effect the multicultural audience.  Most will agree that the reason why Instagram has left all other photo sharing platforms in the dust is because it truly makes you feel like an artist--even if you aren't one.

The combination of great after affects and ease of sharing makes Instagram a natural for anyone with a creative nature.  Twitter on the other hand has always had that added element of compelling you to make a post feel newsworthy.  Instagram is to Twitter what graffiti is to blogging.

So, here's what, both Instagram and Twitter are popular with the multicultural audience, but to quote Will Smith in Men in Black (which I have been known to do from time to time) Instagram video is THE NEW HOTNESS!!!

For marketers, the opportunity exists in helping these new found artists share their creations with the world.  Please don't get on Instagram with your 6-10 second video for your latest chip flavor. No one gives a sh*t.  But if you want to feature the most creative video in your next chip commercial, the multicultural audience will be all over that.

For right now, pull back on that Twitter strategy, and keep your social media listening team busy downloading 8 second videos of butterflies who start flying when you touch them on the screen.  How cool is that?

And...fade to black!