Surprised by the Vine Shut Down?
It happens, social bookmarking sites come and go like the seasons, the same as any business. So what are the next steps and lessons to learn here if you are a content creator?
Luckily, during the Vine shut down there is still at the time of writing a window of opportunity to download your content. The problem is that on other platforms you may take this window for granted. Even if you’ve never used Vine, this article will be relevant if you post your content on any social media accounts.
What would happen if Vine had closed its doors on you overnight and you are a huge content creator there, and along with that, you also lost your audience? Imagine waking to something like this one day!
This is very similar to my blog post I wrote on the social media streaming platform Blab shutting down, which I actually had some content on and this content is no more. Here’s a quick summary of what happened:
Vine started with 6 second clips which became vastly popular for teenagers, and then was bought for $30 million by Twitter in 2012, and although the answer for it being shut down is not clear, from what I can gather Twitter haven’t managed to monetise it properly. There is more information on this in a Techcrunch article.
So what does the Vine shut down mean for content creators?
Although the existing content is kept, if you have an audience they obviously will be seeking out new platforms to find the latest content to go and check out. In future, I highly suggest creating content via a medium that you actually own and have full control of.
One example of this is having a blog and sending people to your blog as an end goal. Social media platforms like Vine and Facebook are great places to build up an initial audience, however there is no saying in how long your audience will stay on that particular platform.
Even if Vine kept going, if your audience is on a platform that they aren’t having much fun on, they may not take time out of their day to find your content. However, if you have a blog then you are able to divert your audience’s attention to areas you would want them to look at.
As an example, you’re not able to easily add an opt-in form for people to subscribe to a newsletter on Facebook. Creating an email list would be another great idea, as if you were to start creating content on another platform, you could notify subscribers of when and where your next posts will be.
In summary, there is lots to be learnt from the Vine shut down, my best advice would be to not put all of your eggs in one basket and instead branch out to new platforms. This is especially true if you’re already gaining a lot of momentum in one area – always keep going and exploring new avenues if you want to stay consistent with your brand and message!
-Seb Brantigan
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Skype: seb.brantigan
P.S. looking for ways to actually monetise your content just by telling your story and make sure that it stands the test of time?
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