• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, April 1, 2013

The version number update to Twitter's video app Vine seems incremental, but it adds features that marketers could find especially helpful. With its iOS update available over this past weekend, Vine now allows app users to share videos posted by others on their own Twitter and Facebook networks. Surely this will help enhance the ways that videos resonate throughout the social ecosystem.

More attractive to marketers, however, will be the new video embed feature. By tapping on the tools icon for any Vine video, a user can send a link that provides video embed tools. The process is a bit involved. The app sends the user an email link that in turn sends the user to a Vine Web site location that includes the video as well as a series of options. The user can choose one of three sizes, have the video embedded without a Vine-branded frame, or have the embedded video include a postcard format that includes the Vine logo.

A wide range of brands have experimented with Vine since its launch just a few months ago. The Web site brandsonvine.com is monitoring over 30,000 brands for their Vine activity. Companies such as Nordstrom’s, USA Today, Adidas, American Apparel, and many others have been experimenting with the 6-second video format that Vine offers. The new video-embedding capability will certainly help these brands distribute some of this creative use of stop motion and short video creation more widely.

GE is likely the most ambitious brand on Vine right now. The company creates compelling 6-second science illustrations that it publishes regularly. The Bounty paper towels brand has created a 6-second illustration of its product's strength. The Gillette razor brand has done a quick animated run-through of its major models of the past 20 years. And USA Today does a stop-motion review of the top stories in its daily newspaper.