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Time is almost always a vital limiting factor in engaging with customers, but

Vine and Instagram each impose a strict maximum (six and 15 seconds,

respectively). This may seem like a short amount of time, but consider

instead how long it takes someone to scroll past a tweet or an individual

photo on Instagram.

Comparatively, video content gives you at least 10 times more eyeball time

(also, Vines garner nearly four times the screen space of a typical tweet in a

Twitter feed). Shouldn’t your brand capitalize on that opportunity? To do so,

it’s important to understand how to construct an engaging video and how to

measure the success of a post or campaign.

Engagement: Techniques and Strategies

Tool: Pitch’d

Time constraints can create pressure to cram as much content as possible

into a finite space. Resist this urge. Instead, tell a story that suits the

medium, embracing it’s structures and limitations.

The Tribeca Film Festival took this to heart in 2013, creating a #6secfilm

hashtag competition where contestants submitted their videos directly

through Vine. To stimulate storytelling, each submission needed a beginning,

middle and end to qualify for the contest. Specific yet non-prescriptive

guidelines unleashed film enthusiasts’ creativity, and thousands of

submissions poured in.

If that sounds overwhelming, a tool like Pitch’d facilitates easy creation and

management of such competitions.

The contest mentioned above was so successful that TFF has already

confirmed a 2014 version of the event. See one of the winning submissions

from 2013 below:



Instagram video, Vine’s slightly lengthier competitor in the social video space

(up to 15 seconds of recording time), is perfect for sharing clips with multiple

cuts or scenes. The slightly extended running time allows for a less frenetic

pace, reducing chances of viewers’ queasiness from watching your video.

Add continuity throughout scenes by keeping either the foreground or

background of a shot consistent, even while the other changes. The athletic

wear and lifestyle brand Adidas features several stellar examples on its

Instagram account (and more on the @adidaswomen feed), showcasing

carefree, stop-motion product demos on a neutral background.