The compulsory short time spans of Vine or Instagram videos (six and fifteen seconds respectively) stand in stark contrast to the limitless minutes available on Vimeo or YouTube. Understanding the marketing potentials and differentiators of these 'minutes and moments' is the key to any successful multi-channel video marketing campaign.

But just what would you say to promote your brand in a six-second clip? What would you add if you had 15 seconds? How would it differ to a 1.59 minutes piece of content?

With Vine or Instagram video, every second counts. With just six seconds to big up your brand, it's not so much about thinking outside the box as it is developing an acute understanding of what fits inside the box and what doesn't. Only then can the short time frame actually serve to focus your mind, allowing you to strip your messages down to their bare essentials. With the frequency of Tweets containing Vines now nine every second, understanding how to make your Vines stand out from the crowd couldn't be more pressing.

What is Vine?

Before you start making clips, however, it is important to understand how these micro video sharing platforms work. For simplicity sake we'll concentrate on Vine as it surpassed Instagram in terms of Twitter shares in June 2013.

Put simply, Vine is a community-focused mobile application created by Twitter that allows users to bounce short video clips - and ideas - between each other via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These Vines are four times more popular when it comes to sharing than other online videos, making them a vital tool in marketing your brand. They are also on a loop, meaning that your clip could be seen numerous times before the recipient turns it off.

Whether they are a symptom or a cause of an online world of ever shrinking attention spans is another debate but what's not in doubt is the exponential rise of people accessing the internet in short bursts, whilst on the train, in a restaurant, or in between meetings. This need for speed has ushered in a new era of the shortform video marketing, meaning that every second of your Vine clip really must count.

Timing really is key to success; every moment must be highly engaging but these moments themselves need to be culturally relevant and perfectly adapted to of-the-moments events to gain the maximum chance of virality with your target audience. Producing such short bursts of relevant content is not something that comes naturally to everyone (especially a lot of video marketers) but now is undoubtedly the time to learn.

Vine Dos

• Do think community: Take part frequently and at all times provide what you would like to receive from a business when it comes to interaction. Invite members of your community to create their own particular Vines. Competitions are a great way of doing this.

• Do be true to your business: Do not lose your brand identity by getting caught up in a mind-set of churning out Vines as quickly as you can just because they can be quick and low-cost to create. Poor-quality Vines will not promote your business effectively, so do not waste your time.

• Do keep up-to-date: Vine makes it easy to react to events. Show your community how in-touch your brand is by keeping abreast of news in your sector and the wider world, and being ready to react.

• Do track your Vines: Monitor what is working and what is not and keep making changes to keep things fresh and appealing.

Vine Don'ts

• Don't be boring: A good clip can include a whole host of information but must be entertaining and useful as well. 'How to' guides are always popular, as are product demonstrations. If your product has an interesting and unique selling point, you're halfway there already.

• Don't miss opportunities: Create an editorial calendar, including everything from Christmas to your brand's anniversaries, to ensure you do not miss any marketing opportunities. If you have product launches or sales planned, ensure that you include a link to your website so you can maximise on the interest you generate.

• Don't sell too hard: Primarily promote the ethos of your brand rather than products themselves, and always be authentic, honest, and open. Use Vines as an opportunity to show what your brand is really about and get your team members involved.

Author Bio
Jon Mowat is a former BBC Documentary film maker and Managing Director of video production and marketing company, Hurricane Media. You can connect with him on Twitter.