When Twitter released Vine a few months ago for the iPhone, myself and many others were initially impressed. But it was hard to tell whether Vine would catch on or remain something a minority of users would enjoy. Since its release however, Vine has performed well. News breaking yesterday and being heavily reported on this morning tells us that Vine has finally arrived on the Android.
Vine's Performance
Since Vine's release at the beginning of this year, I've written quite a few posts about the app, the latest covering how apparently mainstream Vine had become. For businesses and agencies, Vine has become a unique way to reach consumers, interact with them, and also present their marketing strategy or products in a new way. Vine is quick, easy, and it's got that cool factor that is great for picking up new users.
So it's no surprise that, as Stuart Dredge reports for the Guardian, Twitter has declared "that Vine has so far attracted 13m users on iPhone." For an app to grab that many people in a matter of five to six months is impressive enough. But now Vine is available for Android.
Vine On Android
According to Jessica Hullinger for FastCompany, on Monday Twitter shared with the world the release of Vine for Android writing, "We've been looking forward to this day." No doubt many Android users have been waiting as well. Even more important is the remarks Jessica makes regarding why Android access is important. She writes that the release on Android "could result in an explosion in users similar to that experienced by Instagram ... in early 2012."
Now that Android users can get in on the Vine action, there's no doubt in my mind that Vine is only going to become more popular. As Carly Page reports for The Inquirer, "Google's Play store for Android apps will topple Apple's App Store as the most popular app platform" in a few months. There are hundreds of millions of people running on Android right now. Vine was the top app on Apple's store and I can see Vine getting near the top for Android in a very short time.
Businesses and Agencies Should Look Into Using Vine
Now is a great time for businesses and agencies to start dabbling in Vine. Some companies have done a great job using Vine as an additional marketing and branding tool. If you need some suggestions about where to get started, check out a post I made not long after Vine was released.
Vine is cool, slick, easy to use, and increasingly popular. It really doesn't take much to start using it as a tool to grow your business, however slightly (or maybe greatly). Of course, Vine won't replace what you regularly do in your online marketing like blogging, social media interaction, and other steps. But, Vine is a great way to liven things up and bring new people into your brand ecosystem.
The internet rewards creativity and Vine is an app that thrives on creativity. It's free, and essentially harmless as long as you know what's being posted. So give Vine a shot - sometimes the simplest things can go viral and I have no doubt we're going to see more of Vine in the future.
Do you think businesses and agencies need to be using Vine now that it's available on Android?