
Becca Holloway
Senior Social Media Consultant
Becca is an award winning Senior Social Media Consultant who specialises in paid social media campaigns.
We all consume vast amounts of short-form video, whether it be through Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter... the list goes on! In this article, we'll learn how to maximise results with short-form video on social media.
We all consume vast amounts of short-form video, whether it be through Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter… the list goes on! In this article, we’ll learn how to maximise results with short-form video on social media. Let’s start with understanding what short-form video actually is:
Short-form video is typically less than 2 minutes 30 seconds long. However, with the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels in 2020, many of the videos you’ll watch will be even shorter, between 10-30 seconds.
Our attention span has definitely taken a hit over the past few years. We’re spending more time than ever glued to our smartphones, but apps are constantly fighting for our attention. Even though we’re getting through content quicker, we are actually spending as much as 52 minutes on TikTok each day.
There are arguments that the rise of short-form video has ruined attention span, causing us to scroll and scroll and scroll, but what’s really interesting is how long we’re spending glued to our phones.
The first question you need to ask yourself before including short-form video in your social media strategy is: what are your marketing goals?
Short-form video is particularly effective for:
If you need help, take a look at our handy guide to setting business & marketing goals for your next campaign.
Now you’ve determined your goals, it’s time to consider the content itself.
We know how long audiences are spending on social media each day, but you still need to work on competing against other videos. Make sure you aim to capture your audience in the first three seconds to avoid them scrolling through past onto the next video.
This is a particularly effective technique and can be a great way to increase the watch time of your videos, whether it be for an organic or paid short-form video. By creating a loop, your views will be more likely to watch again. You could also experiment with starting your video near the end so that your audience has to rewatch it to see the whole message.
TikTok and even Instagram Reels are extremely saturated with content, so it’s important to you do something unexpected. This could be as simple as making a bold claim that you’ll go on to explain in the rest of your video, or you could get creative with framing and transitions to help make your video stand out from the crowd.
With all of these techniques listed, you want to try and make sure that your content falls within one of the four ‘E’s. We learned about this technique from Rachel Pedersen, you can listen to her describing how she developed this system on this podcast episode: ‘TikTok Strategies for Lead Generation’.
Let’s break these down:
Short-form video is only going to continue growing in popularity. All social media platforms have recognised the power of this format and that’s why it’s more important than ever before to make sure it’s part of your strategy.
Our social team have worked extensively on TikTok campaigns in the last 18 months, as the app has risen in popularity. Get in touch with us to learn about how we can make short-form video work for your campaign.
Senior Social Media Consultant
Becca is an award winning Senior Social Media Consultant who specialises in paid social media campaigns.
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