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Here’s a practical exercise: Pick up your mobile phone or navigate to your favorite social media platform from your desktop browser. What’s the first thing that catches your eye? Short-form video. On Facebook, these are known as reels, and these enticing video clips are usually a few seconds long. These vids are designed to grab your attention for a short time. A well-made short-form video has dazzling reach potential because it hits all the markers in the social media multiverse.
So, what exactly is a short-form video, and why is it so captivating? As the name suggests, short-form videos are time-compressed stories, allegories, snippets, or mini-videos designed to be watched quickly. They don’t require much understanding because they are self-explanatory. And sharing them is as easy as clicking a button. Our modern-day cultural zeitgeist is filled with an abundance of these videos. Think of Instagram reels, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts, and TikTok vids. They are pervasive, dominant, and incredibly engaging.
There are plenty of statistics showing how impactful and effective short-form video is nowadays. This high-speed content cuts through all the noise on social media and focuses our attention for a moment in time. The effectiveness of these videos is evident in their high view rates, audience reactions, and shares. The vast majority of the world’s most successful influencers use this storytelling medium effectively. It’s built expressly for scrolling, mobile screens, and algorithmic feeds. As one of the hottest trends in influencer marketing, short-form video dominates on a massive scale.
Social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X.com, YouTube, and even LinkedIn reward this format of information sharing because it keeps people glued to the screen. High-octane content is delivered instantly – whether it’s an extraordinary reveal, a news story, a product review, a slice of comedy, or an innovative product or service. In fact, there is nothing in the metaverse of human imagination that cannot be expressed in short-form video. Nowadays, AI has exploded onto the scene with unbelievable storytelling potential in short-form video.
From a viewer’s perspective, nothing beats this medium. We instantly connect with our favorite influencers, and the message resonates in real time. The most effective short videos are under a minute long. Social studies suggest that our minds can maintain focus on social feeds for a short time. A Microsoft study found that people can stay focused online for up to 8 seconds before switching tasks. For something more cognitively demanding, that figure (our attention span) increases somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes.
Source: Marketing LTB
Short-form video wins praise from folks because it’s easy to repurpose across many different social platforms. A well-made video clip can be edited into variations. For example, it can be posted as a Reel, a Short, a TikTok, or a LinkedIn video. Each version can have slightly different captioning, framing, or focus. In influencer marketing, consistency of activity is the real currency. Brands are about much more than singular viral moments. These platforms seek consistent high-value audiovisual content. Added to that is the fact that short-form video supports product discovery. It’s better than static content – think of quick demos, lots of reactions, and real-world use cases.
