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Nathan Golia
Nathan Golia
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Twitter Launches Vine: What Could Insurers Do With Six Seconds of Video?

Twitter's Vine micro-video service is live. What could insurers do with it?

Twitter launched the Vine micro-video sharing service yesterday. Vine allows Twitter users to embed looping six-second videos in Tweets with sound.

The New York Times has more information about the launch, including a temporary hiccup when a user found himself logged in as someone else, staring at that person's hidden phone number and e-mail address. Yikes.

So, let's talk about how insurers might be able to use this new wrinkle in the social media landscape. My first idea was that policyholders filing claims could tweet out quick panoramic videos of a damaged car or home, giving adjusters a look without having to page through multiple pictures.

I'm not sure how that would work privacy-wise, though. Maybe a better place to look is for outbound communications. Quick coverage facts (there's no reason why you couldn't Vine out a slideshow, to my knowledge), marketing messages, or disaster preparedness tips could easily fit into six seconds of video.

But what Vine should serve as for insurers is a reminder of how visual social media is. It's so imperative that Twitter felt it necessary to acquire and integrate this service. Effective programs will have to incorporate more than just text.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio

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