Vine's New "Loop Counts" May Cause Video Marketing Deception

Vine, the Twitter-owned video-sharing platform, has unveiled “Loop Counts,” a new feature to help users track their video views.

The new metric updates the number of viewers who have looped a video, both on Vine and in embeds across the Web, in real time. Although the new feature seems like a step in the right direction towards greater video marketing functionalities for Twitter, some market participants fear that it may also lead to deception.

       The Web Version

‘Loop Counts’ will provide Vine with a (somewhat) robust metric. And according to Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of marketing company SEO-PR (and author of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day), may also attract more brands to use the platform as marketers will be able to see how many times people have looped/viewed their videos. Additionally, the new capability will enable Vine to “effectively counter” Facebook’s recent improvement to its video rankings.

 

            The Mobile Version

While “Likes,” “Revines,” and “Comments” are all very positive engagement signs, the “Loop Count” adds another dimension to the existing Vine metrics. “If you get an average of three loops per viewer, that is a strong signal of engagement,” says Jarboe.

Although “Loop Counts” will likely help Vine enhance its video marketing capabilities, the metric may not be 100 percent accurate, notes Jarboe. Since a Vine video plays and loops automatically, “Loops” may be counted even if the video is not actually being watched, leading to a deceptive figure of engagement. For example, if a Vine video is embedded in an online article, its loop count will increase as long as the page is open, even though the video is not necessarily being continuously watched by readers. Therefore, the number of loops may not reflect the actual number of views a Vine video has received.

“That is the reason that YouTube doesn’t count views of videos set on autoplay. Twitter has taken a step in the right direction but will definitely need to make adjustments down the road to avoid any possibility of deceptive

,” says Jarboe.

The platform started tracking “Loop Counts” on April 3 this year. So, for videos posted prior to that date, the company has created a little “+” icon to show that those videos’ actual “Loop Counts” are higher than what’s reported.

In addition to “Loop Counts,” Vine has added other enhancements, including a redesign with bigger videos and a cleaner view of likes and comments, as well as a milestone notification where users can get alerts when their videos receive a certain number of likes.

“Loops Counts” are available so far on the Web and in the iOS and Android apps.