The Beginner's Guide to Vine

Vine's meteoric rise through the social media world comes as little surprise to anyone who's browsed through the looping six-second video clips that define the app.
When Twitter acquired Vine in October 2012 — before the app had even launched — the social network explained the move as part of their search for the next big thing. Living up to expectations, the video sharing app saw 403% growth between Q1 and Q3 of 2013.
Learning how to utilize all of Vine's features effectively probably seems daunting to a beginner, so we've created this guide to help get you started.

Setting Up

Vine is available as a free download on all three major smartphone platforms, including Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
After installation, you'll be prompted to sign up with either your Twitter account or email address. Once you're set up with a profile, press the "+" symbol in the top-right corner to add friends through your address book, Twitter "following" list, or by inviting them via text and email links.

Finding Users to Follow

Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani Outside of your contacts, you can discover creative and popular Vine users through the app's Explore tab. Here, you can view videos included in Vine's channel pages, such as Comedy, Music and News & Politics. The Explore page also includes trending hashtags and both "Popular Now" and "On the Rise" tabs.
Once you've added Twitter friends and popular channel users, pay attention to their revines. Like a retweet, a revine makes it possible to share a video created by another user to all of your followers. Many popular users make cameos in each other's Vine videos and revine each other frequently. You can also scroll through talented users' "following" list, to see who they're watching.

Vine Culture: What to Expect

Vine is truly a creative melting pot. Animators, comedians, cinematographers and daredevils all utilize the app's short, looping and shareable video tools in their own ways. After spending some time exploring, you'll begin to notice some common formulas on the app.

Creating a Video

To start recording your video, just press the camera icon in the top-right corner of the app. Holding your finger to the screen begins recording, and releasing your finger pauses it. Unlike Instagram, you still cannot upload prerecorded video into the app. Vine videos can be as long as six seconds and as short as three.
Image: Vine While filming, the buttons along the bottom of your screen offer several options that will help you create better Vine videos. From left to right, you have the front-facing camera, a grid for stable shooting, a focus button, a tool for "ghosting and a "Save Draft" button. With drafts, you can save and work on up to 10 videos at a time.
Image: Vine Vine's ghosting tool is best used in stop-motion animations, as it allows you to view the last frame you captured. Use it to help line up your object and create fluid transitions between cuts.
Image: Vine Once you've recorded your video, press the arrow in the top-right corner of your screen and preview your finished product. If you'd like to rearrange your sequence of clips, press the Edit button and simply drag and drop your individual clips to their new places in your timeline. You can delete clips by dragging them to the top of the screen into the trashcan icon, as seen above.
When you're finished editing, press Save, and then press the green checkmark at the bottom of your screen. You'll be brought to the "Share" screen where you can add a caption, location and channel tag to your video. If you want more exposure for your creation, include descriptive hashtags in your caption at this stage. If you've connected your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you can choose to share your Vine to those sites as well. Your finished Vine videos can also be shared on your desktop via the URL and embed codes.