Vine
was pronounced dead by Twitter when it recently announced it was shedding 9% of its
workforce, in a bid to become more profitable.
I never used the six-second video social media platform, but many people
did. I can’t imagine what happens to
those who relied on Vine to market their books, brand themselves, and seek to
get a message out. Is this a window into
what will come – and what, if anything can be done about it?
Vine’s
demise clearly means:
·
YouTube
asserts its dominance.
·
If
Twitter can fail big with its digital acquisition, so can others.
·
Twitter
is vulnerable to falling as well.
· Social media is crowded but dominated by just a handful of players.
But
it also means that:
·
You
can’t develop a media strategy that’s too heavy in any one area, because it can
just disappear as fast as it came on the scene.
·
People
are not as ADHD as we thought – perhaps a six-second video really was too short
to be meaningful.
·
Twitter
could be moving closer to creating a pay wall for its platform – with others
like FB, You Tube, and LI to follow possibly.
Vine
said it had 100 million people watch videos this past month. Somehow it couldn’t find a way to make
money. What’s wrong with Silicon Valley?
Writers,
by and large, wish they did not have to invest so much time, creativity, and
effort in branding themselves and marketing their books, especially through
social media. It can be tedious and
repetitive work, where the rewards don’t always seem obvious or significant. So when authors hear that Vine is shutting
down, some may react with applause in hopes that all of social media would
simply disappear. Other writers, such as
me, fear of what’s to come.
Could
LinkedIn suddenly shutter and my 20,000 connections just leave with it?
Could
Facebook or Twitter evaporate, along with my followers and the ability to share
blog posts?
If
it impacts me and you, how will it impact other media that’s now become
dependent on using its nemesis?
We
live in a world that once something gets introduced, it gets adopted. Once it’s embraced by the masses, what
happens when it goes away? We’ve been
broken in the past 20 years to get used to digital life. It’s changed how we do
everything from information consumption and sharing, to shopping, donating, and
job hunting. Social media was once an
annoyance and seemingly a fad or hobby, but now it’s so entrenched in our
society and way of marketing that for it to disappear, piece by piece, is quite
troubling and vexing.
I
personally won’t miss what I don’t use, but as Vine exits the grand stage, I
wonder what might take its place – and what might be next to vanish. Before
print gives way completely to digital, let’s admit that parts of digital are
quite vulnerable themselves.
Of
course, all of this may not mean anything.
I’m sure we’ll develop new modes of communication that will put all of
the current technology to shame. We
think it’s so cool to have a computer in our pockets, to have 24-7 access to
things, to find what we want or need in a matter of a few clicks, and it is
great, but science and technology will advance far beyond this.
It’s
only a matter of time before wearable technology expands – and then it’ll be
inside of us – in our blood stream, in our brains, in our bones. We’ll be bionic and robotic. Humans and machines will become one. It may
not fully happen in anyone’s lifetime today, but it’ll happen. How could it not?
Maybe
I watch too many Terminator movies or
Total Recall films, but the future
won’t be about Facebook and it certainly won’t be about Vine.
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