Twitter is well known as one of the ten most visited social media websites worldwide. No wonder why; it’s one of the fastest, most concise social media platforms out there. Anyone, from ordinary people to major corporations, can post updates and communicate using 140 characters at a time. And now, they’ve expanded their options to include video.
Recently, Twitter purchased Vine, an application that enables recording and sharing six-second videos, sometimes called Vines. What can’t be said in 140 characters can now be captured on video for all your friends and followers to see.
So How Do I Use Vine on Twitter?
First, download the Vine app. Right now, it’s only available in Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, but it’s free. Next, open the app and sign in with your Twitter account. Just like that, you're now ready to start recording.
All you have to do is aim your device’s camera at whatever you want to record and touch the screen. While you are filming, you can stop and start recording by touching the screen. This allows you to show different “scenes” in one video or create stop-motion. Keep in mind that Vine also records audio while filming, so be careful to eliminate unwanted background noise.
When you have created a Vine, you have the option of labeling it with a caption and your location. You can choose to share your creation on Vine, Twitter and Facebook, and your video is saved to your device’s camera roll.
Bear in mind that Vine is still a relatively new social media application. Odds are you might run into bugs or glitches, but there are several other important things you need to remember before using Vine.
What to Know About Vine
Privacy is still very limited on Vine. Your Vine account, and any videos you share through it are automatically and irreversibly public. If you want to share your short video privately, you can record it through Vine, but decline sharing it. Then, go back and send it through email or MMS.
You have one chance to share your videos through Vine. If you do not choose to share it through Vine right when it is recorded, you cannot upload it back to Vine later. However, if you do share it with Vine but not Facebook or Twitter, you can go back and change that later.
Vines on your Facebook timeline start playing automatically. This can be startling, noisy, and if you are in public, embarrassing.
Don’t add too many hashtags to your video. Choose up to two that best relate to your creation.
Be appropriate. Remember, what goes on the Internet stays there forever. With that being said, you have to be 17 or older to download Vine and only recently an option to report obscene videos has been added.
Conclusions
These issues may be fixed in the future, so keep checking Vine for updates. If pictures are worth a thousand words, how many is a Vine worth? Try it, and find out.