Using Vine to Juice Up Your Hospital or Medical Marketing

You know Vine. It’s the micro-video-sharing service that hospitals and medical marketing folks can use for visual spice in social networks including Twitter and Facebook. When Vine first emerged many people wondered if there was a useful marketing purpose when confined to creating little looping video clips of less than six seconds. It’s probably the same sort of initial skepticism that questioned Twitter’s 140-character ceiling. Well…surprise! Today—less than four years later and owned by Twitter—Vine is popular with more than 200 million active users monthly. It has the proven ability to communicate via compelling video simplicity that supports healthcare marketing. Helping to fuel this growth:

• camera-equipped smartphones are ubiquitous
• social media use, especially Facebook and Twitter, is nearly a national pastime
• video (all shapes and sizes) is dominant online content
• visual images hit the brain in milliseconds

The nature of Vine allows it to be used most often as a visual bonus to other social platforms rather than a standalone tool. A six-second video loop is an enticing visual splash that invites sharing…and shareability is what makes social tools effective. Think interesting, brief and attention getting. That said, here are some of the ways to use Vine to visually juice up your hospital or medical marketing plan:

• People and personality. Being able to see what people look like is a mini-meet-and-greet between the public and doctors, medical staff, administrators and others.

• Demonstrate and illustrate. Six seconds can be a tight squeeze for new technology or a product, service demonstration or process, but it can demystify, spark interest and lead to longer form content.

• Brand impact and identity. Customers, patients, and people in general, can identify with real people more easily than with an impersonal institution.

• Recognition spotlight. Quick visual clips help recognize advocates, volunteers, supporters, employees and others important to the organization.

• Celebrate people, milestones or achievements
• Communicate what’s new, different or unusual
• Health or nutrition tips
• Promote events and special occasions
• Virtual tour(s)

Vine is a fast, free and effective video-sharing tool that boosts the impact of social media and medical marketing messages. Although brief, creative and interesting video bits can entertain, educate, inform and engage a visitor. (“Creative and interesting” propels shareability.) Who’s watching? But Vine usage is not evenly distributed across the population. Typical users tend to be younger. The majority of Vine users—about 71 percent—are millennials. About 28 percent of Vine’s adult users are between 18 and 24 and primarily female. However, the more active Vine users also tend to be strong influences among the social media audience. You might think of Vine (and similar video sharing platforms) as a means to gain greater leverage and exposure. Using vine can juice up your hospital or medical marketing plan in social media.