A Guide to Creating Short-Form Video Content

If you’re looking for a social media trend that has staying power, short-form video is where it’s at! Whether it’s Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, or YouTube Shorts, engaging your audience through short video content is an essential part of an effective social media marketing strategy. 

Watching videos has become a pastime for almost every person carrying a smartphone. While there are several types of video content, short-form content has taken priority in the past three years. Social media users can have a short attention span, and this format is where they are spending their time.

This is also why adding your content to short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts is important. These social media platforms will prioritize video content and move it to the forefront of their algorithm. Creating compelling short videos can significantly increase your viewership and engagement, help you to grow your audience, and generate more leads for your business.

If you’re wondering how to create video content that’s engaging, you have come to the right place.

Micro, Short-Form and Long-Form Videos

While there is no universal standard video length, short-form video usually runs up to 3 minutes in length at most. Micro videos are a form of short-form video content that run anywhere from a few seconds up to about a minute.

Long-form video content typically lasts longer than 10 minutes. Longer video content is more in depth and informative and includes videos in livestream, interview, or podcast format. 

How to Pick Your Platform

It’s important to choose platforms where your target audience spends their time in order to promote your product or service through concise video content. If your ideal audience is not on TikTok, then you don’t need to be there either. 

Making short videos takes time, so make sure you maximize their impact. One way to do this is to focus your efforts on the right platform. You can always add more platforms once you get in a good rhythm with producing video content. 

These are our top platform recommendations:

• Instagram Reels
• Facebook Reels
• YouTube Shorts
• TikTok

Topics for Your Short-Form Video Marketing

To get you started, here are a few video content ideas on the type of content you can leverage in videos:

• User-generated content: Audiences love to engage with authentic content created by other users. Client product or service testimonial videos are a great short-form content piece. If you can get your clients to engage in creating content for your brand, you will reap the rewards.
• Behind-the-scenes content: Take your audience behind the curtain for some exclusive content about your business. We all love to feel like a VIP. Make a quick video while you’re working—of your creative process, organizational systems, etc.
• Educational content: You’re the expert on your business! Educate your audience with tips from your industry using trending audio and visual effects. Share your knowledge with engaging videos they’ll love to watch on Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts.
• Personal content: Integrate your family, kids, hobby, or pets into your video marketing strategy. This will give your following a more personal look into your life and business.
• Funny content: When all else fails, resort to humor. There are many voiceover trends that can take a boring topic like getting a mortgage and turn it into a laughable moment.

Remember to keep it short! Try to get your hook in the first few seconds, and try to keep your videos under about a minute.

Sourcing Trends and Filming Tips 

Trends come and go quickly. So how can you capture a trend before it has come and gone? Research and a little organization is the answer. 

Here’s how we do it with our clients. We source three to five trending audio clips at the start of the week. To keep everyone and the content organized, we plug those trends and some example videos into a spreadsheet. We then add our own concepts on how to personalize the video specific to the client’s work.

Here are some tips for you to use if you’re filming your own content.

Schedule time to record

Before you dive headfirst into filming your content, it’s important to know how much content you need. We recommend getting out the ole’ calendar and figuring out how many videos you need to fill the upcoming month. 

If you’re posting three times a week, how many weekdays will you need to fill? We ask our clients to have a set time each week to film trending content. Once they’ve recorded the video, they send it to us for editing and posting. We spread out the content throughout the week and publish the trends while the trends are still hot. 

Stay organized

We keep the spreadsheet up to date so we all know what trends we’ve already used and published each week. You can implement a process like this for yourself and your own team.

(If you don’t have a team, you may be looking for a team like ours to do it for you. Click here to book a call with us today to learn more about our video production and editing services.)

Find some inspiration

It sometimes feels overwhelming to figure out what to shoot and how to perform in front of a camera. If so, start by following some other influencers already doing it in your industry. Watch what they do and how they deliver their content. Sometimes we learn more by watching rather than doing. 

This will spark your creative side or at the very least give you some ideas on how to film. After that it’s up to you. The more videos you do, the more comfortable you will get in front of the camera, so don’t give up. Keep creating, and it will get easier and more fun as you go. 

Editing Basics

When you’re first learning how to create your short-form video content, the most important part is editing your video. 

It’s not necessary to create a cinematic masterpiece. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube all have simple and effective creative tools that will help you edit your videos into compelling content. 

Here are some great editing ideas for beginners:

• Use an original sound.
• Add some music or a sound effect.
• Add a filter.
• Add captions or text overlays. 
• Add a call to action.

Most platforms have many short-form video features and editing options for you to choose from. Start by learning basic editing on the platform of your choice, and you can advance your skills from there.

When you finish, save the video in your drafts! There’s no need to post it right away. As already mentioned, batching your content can help save you time and effort in the long run.

You can also use apps such as Canva to create short video content. Canva has a wide selection of vertical video designs. All you have to do is plug in your content, add music, download, and publish. This is a great editing tool for those just starting out or for those looking to change up their content.

Cross-Promote Your Short-Form Videos

Let’s talk about cross-posting the same short-form video to different platforms. If you haven’t already heard, Instagram and TikTok don’t play nicely together. They both want your exclusive content. 

If you share a video you posted on TikTok to Instagram Reels, you will notice that the algorithm will prioritize other content and you won’t get as much reach. It’s because Instagram recognizes the TikTok watermark (and vice versa).

So how can you get around this without spending a ton of time editing videos on each platform separately? 

The answer is simple! After you’ve posted your video, if you click the three little dots. You will then see an option to copy the URL. Once you’ve done that, you can use an online tool to remove the original watermark.

We use SnapTik for this, but there are many websites out there that will work. Open up SnapTik on your browser, and insert the TikTok URL. Once the watermark is gone, you can repost your video without being penalized by the algorithm. 

The Importance of Staying Consistent

Time is money. You will save both by using these tips to create your short-form video content. It’s more important to stay consistent and show up frequently than to produce a ton of videos.

In fact, if you’re just starting out with videos, don’t overcommit yourself. Do what you can on a weekly basis and start there. A lapse in your posting can mean a loss in followers and engagement. That can be hard to come back from.

Do You Need More Help?

There are resources available to fit every budget when it comes to video support. If you just need an editor, then online platforms like Fiverr.com can be a good resource to find talent.

If you need a multi-channel video marketing strategy, content ideas, video editing, and more, an agency like Real Marketing Solutions might be a better fit for your business. Our job is to get and keep you trending across all platforms.

If launching a video marketing strategy (short form or long form) is in the cards for you, our team would love to chat with you. Schedule a call with us today to see how Real Marketing Solutions can integrate seamlessly into your marketing efforts—videos and all! Also feel free to browse our most recent blog articles for more tips by clicking here.