Microblogging through Twitter and other platforms is one of the most popular ways for people to get involved in social media across the world. Another short form that is increasingly popular online is what can be considered “micro video”— with Vine or Instagram video as popular examples. We are about to see a lot more video in our everyday access to social media, apps, and other outlets because there is a push to highlight moving images across platforms. Essentially, people are sharing videos that last only a few seconds. On Vine, these videos play in a loop while on Instagram the videos can be longer and play only once unless the viewer chooses to replay it. Vine and Instagram are owned by Twitter and Facebook, respectively. Although the majority of the content on those two platforms is not commercial, there has been a good amount of talk about what the role of short videos can be for commercial or promotional content.

Recently, Twitter released an update to timelines where short videos will preview instantly. Facebook has done something similar and has announced that advertisements will show up on Instagram feeds. What this suggests is that there will be a parallel in video advertisement to still image content as we see it today. As more people have access to fast internet on smart phones, more content will be available in the form of instant video. Instant video requires shorter formats. Shorter videos can be simple to produce, depending on the concept. Access to video creates more opportunities for people to bring different messages across and expands the possibility for more organic storytelling and information exchange.

Check out the best of Vine here!