7 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Vine's Demise

Although the video-sharing social media platform is going away, there are lessons to be learned.

Last week Twitter announced that it is shutting down Vine. The six-second video creation app won’t be available much longer. Although the site will remain up indefinitely to pass the cultural heritage to the future generations.

While the news created major waves in digital community, it really came as no surprise. Its parent company, Twitter itself has been struggling lately, which is another topic deserving its own article.

So what lessons can entrepreneurs learn from Vine’s short lifespan?

1. Don’t get too invested in one medium.

How many times have you heard that Facebook is essential to your business success? Or a blog? Instagram? Did you hear the latest advice that you absolutely must be on Snapchat?

There are as many opinions as people; and everyone thinks that their way is the only right way, especially if they’re successful.

However, at the end of the day, you have to remember that a medium is just that: a vehicle for your message. Trends will come and go, and so will the apps we love and use.

Yes, some platforms have proven their longevity, yet there is no guarantee that all of them will exist in the form we know them today. To put it in a perspective, just a decade ago, when Myspace was at its prime, people would call you crazy if you suggested that it wouldn’t be around for much longer. So would do the people who have millions of followers on Vine.

So, you have to figure out your message and simply find a way to share it in a variety of formats. That way, you’re not putting all of you eggs in one basket.

2. Smaller communities can be passionate.

Vine had brought together a strong community. While it may not have been relatively huge, it was meaningful. Users who stuck around for the whole time feel strongly about Vine.

I am not saying you should be present on every obscure network out there, but smaller communities, or niches, can be very powerful. A thousand passionate customers may prove to be much more important, than 10,000 distracted followers who do not have an emotional connection with your offering.

3. Stay current.

Don’t jump on every single platform out there. However, pay attention to where your customers are.

Let’s say your product caters to young adults. Well, you have to follow them around where they reside online. Because Facebook was great for reaching millennials five years ago, that doesn’t mean you should cling to it and ignore Instagram or Snapchat.

Moreover, analyze the appeal of these different networks and see if you can uncover bigger trends and needs. For example, Instagram is inspirational. Snapchat offers privacy. Facebook Live offers broadcasting opportunities. However, all of them offer an instantaneous feeling, being there in a moment. This is what people care about these days.

4. Get creative.

One of the possible reasons for Vine demise is the fact that marketers didn’t find a good way to monetize the platform. Yes, I know bad, bad marketers; they want to monetize everything. However, social networks depend on funding and monetizing.

This fact presented a huge untapped opportunity for entrepreneurs. Since most of advertisers had their reasons not to be bothered with Vine, entrepreneurs who wanted to be heard could easily leverage Vine to broadcast their message in a very creative way.

Yes, six seconds seems like an extremely short amount of time to “hook” your potential customers, but, hey, look at all those Viners who showed an immense creativity with the time constraint. Who is to say that a smart marketer could not become an overnight success with a single Vine going viral?  Besides, a skillful series of Vines would not go unnoticed.

5. Talk to people in their language.

Another issue that contributed to Vine’s failure was that the platform had a lot of insider talk going on. “The app generated countless memes, and grew increasingly self-referential over time, so that a single six-second clip might reference a dozen previous hit Vines,” The Verge suggests.

While it may be a side effect of creating a strong community, you have to remember to never be self-contained. If you want your message to be effective, you have to make it as easy as possible to understand it.

If your language gets too technical, too pretentious, or too “exclusive,” you are running a risk of not being understood. And that doesn’t serve anyone, starting with you and your business.

6. Your offering should be unique.

The problem with Vine is that it lost its appeal too fast. Yes, it was cool for the first year or so, but then the hype died down and Vine didn’t offer any new exciting features that would differentiate it in the market. Short videos? Snapchat and Instagram work for those. Looping feature? Boomerang by Instagram has you covered. At the end, there was no real differentiator and no real use for looping six-seconds videos.

7. Promote, promote, promote.

Twitter’s fault was that it didn’t really promote Vine in any way. After a sense of newness withered down, there were no major attempts in pushing Vine. Clearly, Twitter has a lot going on right now with their main platform, so they put Vine on the cruise-control mode.

However, to truly see if your product has any potential, you have to promote it relentlessly. You have to continually improve it, highlighting benefits. Your product will never reach its fullest potential without your efforts.

It’s sad to see Vine go so fast, yet with the latest state of things, it was more a matter of time. Twitter is trying to figure its own course of actions and Vine wasn’t able to perfect its spiel on its own.

Written by: Lesya Liu

Credit: Entrepreneur.com

6 Secrets to Getting a Social Influencer's Attention

Influencer marketing is a powerful way to generate visibility for your brand. The concept is simple: Find an “influencer,” someone in your industry with a large social following and respect within the community. Then get this individual to share your material, engage with you or otherwise mention your brand.

A recommendation could instantly net you some new followers and set you up for future opportunities (such as interviews and collaborative content) with that influencer. And that's all good and well.

However, if you’ve ever tried executing this strategy on a whim, you know it’s not that simple. Influencers generally have hundreds of thousands of followers, and getting their attention isn’t easy. So, how are people doing it?

Here are six secrets to getting an influencer’s attention:

1. Don’t jump in the deep end first.

First, you need to stop chasing distractions and bypass the top-level influencers of your industry. When you’re just starting out, you’re unlikely to get attention from these people  because your message is one of hundreds or thousands they see every week.

Instead, narrow your focus to one or two influencers at a time, and choose them carefully. Look for influencers with lots of followers, but not so many that they’re unreachable.

2. Get your foot in the door before you ask for any big favors.

Don’t rush into a major request for your influencer. Instead, start with some basics of social media networking. Follow your influencer and interact in a helpful, friendly, engaging way. Start by simply reading what the influencer posts and watch how he or she engages with others; just get to know this person.

Once you know a bit more about who this person is and how he or she communicates, you’ll learn more about the area of expertise as well as the best way to get a response. At that point, you can start getting the influencer's attention in subtle ways; for example, you can start retweeting or sharing this person's content, or commenting regularly on his or her posts with insightful, helpful contributions.

3. Always give before taking.

Influencers are busy people, not charity workers. If you start your relationship by asking for a favor, they’re almost certainly going to turn you down. So, instead of leading with a request, lead with some contribution of value. There’s a lot of wiggle room here, so use your imagination in combination with the knowledge you gathered earlier.

What’s important to this influencer? What will get his or her attention? For example, this provision of value could be as simple as sharing one of this person's most recent pieces, or giving a strong counterpoint that boosts its visibility.

4. Stand out.

There are billions of social media users and hundreds of thousands of people leveraging for any one influencer’s time; what makes you special in this crowd of competitors? If you don’t stand out in any way, influencers aren’t going to pay attention to you. So, first, optimize your profile to stand out by showing off your specific niche and expertise, and work on creating and promoting unique content in your own right.

Most influencers will do some background research before engaging with you. Then, when it comes time to address an influencer directly, make sure you come to this person with a unique proposition. Don’t open with a line that a million people have probably already used; instead, draw upon your own personality, and offer something the influencer has never seen before.

5. Respect their time.

Next, you need to respect influencers' time. These are busy people, and they can’t afford to answer every request that comes to them. If you acknowledge this in your approach, you’ll be far more likely to earn their respect and admiration. Nothing will turn influencers away from you faster than demanding attention or disrespecting the value of their time.

6. Learn to take rejection.

You probably aren’t going to be successful with the first influencer you work with. You’ll go through a few -- maybe a dozen or more -- before you get a response. Learn to handle rejection, and move on to the next candidate if your original target influencer doesn’t work out. In many ways, influencer marketing is a game of patience and consistency; maintain these critical tactics, and eventually, you’ll find an ideal partnership.

If you follow these six tips, you should start to see better results in your influencer marketing campaign. That doesn’t mean you’ll be successful with every influencer you approach, and it doesn’t guarantee a higher ROI, but these are the strategies to follow if you want to get a response from some of the top names in your industry.

If you find yourself struggling, consider boosting your reputation in other ways until you’re on similar plane; it’s much easier to network with peers than with people who have significantly more clout.

Written By: Jayson Demers

Credit: Entrepreneur.com

5 Ways Startups Find the Ideal Social-Media Influencer

Whether you are launching or you have been in business for a while, identifying social media influencers who can benefit your brand is critical to your success. For many brands, such influencers seem elusive, but if you understand the right steps to follow, it is possible to find the influencers who can draw attention to your brand and message.

1. Traditional online search.

While it might seem somewhat old school, a simple online search is one of the most effective methods for finding people within your niche or industry with the influence you need to drive traffic your way. Possible sources include reporters, writers, blogs and media outlets. Another option is to search for your competitors to find out who is talking about their brands and where they are receiving mentions. Google Alerts is often beneficial for this purpose. Simply set up an alert to find out who is already discussing your brand online.

2. Online tools.

There are also many online tools you can use to find and connect with individuals who may be relevant to your brand. Such tools include SocialBro, FollowerWonk, and Twellow. By using these tools, you can hone in on those people who may have an interest in what you have to offer, or who may have recently discussed a similar topic online.

3. Search conversation data.

Among the most important elements you will want to determine when searching for influencers is whether an individual frequently discusses topics that are of interest to your brand. Social media listening tools, such as Brandwatch give you the ability to input relevant keywords to identify individuals covering topics that matter to your brand. The key to making this strategy work is ensuring your keywords are not too broad in nature. Remember to keep them narrow for the best results.

4. Measuring influence.

Beyond simply identifying the individuals who may be likely to have an influence over your target demographic, it is also important to spend some time researching actual social influence. Tools such as Kred and PeerIndex provide insights into who may be influential in a particular niche or area.

5. Online circles.

Remember that some of the work of finding online influencers may already have been done for you, so don't overlook it. For instance, Twitter gives you the ability to group Twitter followers together. By leveraging that capability, you can more quickly and easily organize potential influencers. Tools such as Listorious can also be helpful for assisting you in finding such lists.

Finding social media influencers who are a good match for your brand can take some time, but is certainly well worth the effort. With a bit of planning and research, you can soon identify a potential list of influencers who can help to drive awareness and traffic toward your brand.

Written By: Brett Relander

Credit: Entrepreneur.com