Tal Hacmon
January 16, 2022

Beginner's guide for short-form videos creation

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Did you know that short-form video platforms will account for 81% of total consumer internet traffic in the next few years? This short-form video strategy is the most accessible and popular content to consume because it's easier to watch a video about, for instance, a photo editing technique than reading about it. Moreover, it's the most powerful and versatile medium to communicate and engage with the audience. Suppose you wanted to start making short-form videos for whatever reason. In that case, this beginner's guide for short-form videos creation, which includes recommendations and best practices, can help you enhance your video content's quality and engagement no matter what social media platform you're using, from Tiktok to Instagram to YouTube shorts and beyond! 

What are short-form videos?

Short-form videos are defined as any video that is less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds in length. Anything beyond that may fall within the category of long-form video. It varies depending on the platform. Examples of the short-form videos include the 4-second Vine videos that evolved into TikTok bite-sized videos, Instagram reel videos, Boomerangs, and the 2-minute YouTube short you've seen on social media platforms or other social channels. These shorter videos, including appealing video backgrounds, can communicate and send a quick message or engage your target audience.

Top short-form videos platforms

Youtube shorts

The YouTube app has always played a vital role in entertaining the audience. And it helps to create everything from your favorite dance trends to highly replayable short videos. YouTube app has enabled an entire generation of creators to share their voices and reach an audience of over two billion people. As technology improves, designers and artists can now use the extraordinary power of smartphones to easily create and broadcast high-quality vertical videos from anywhere across the globe. People can be entertained and enlightened by bite-sized content in their spare moments.

Facebook Reels

The short video clips you find as Facebook reel has now been officially launched to the Facebook application by the US-based social media company. Reels were previously a popular short video format on the famous photo and video sharing platform, Instagram. Now the users can create and share short video clips. Creators will be able to use music, AR effects, audio, speed, multi-clip, and other capabilities to create short movies on the world's largest social media network using Reels on Facebook.

Tiktok

TikTok is unquestionably the high-quality videos platform of the Millennial and Gen Z populations, with at least 47 percent of its users aged 10 to 29. This short videos site includes a video timeline divided into two tabs. The following tab displays videos submitted by the user's followers. The algorithm-driven TikTok videos and You page displays content depending on user behavior, including what they like, comments on, scrolls, etc.

Funimate

Funimate is primarily a short video editing software allowing users to share their trending video material and is one of the excellent social media platforms. It's generally a terrific method to create short videos by slapping some music on top of them, but this tool can do so much more. This video creator is a full-featured video editor that includes all of the fundamental and some sophisticated capabilities. You can chop, merge, and edit videos in various ways. This video creator provides many complex effects, filters, and transitions to enhance your films.

Instagram Reels

The TikTok-inspired Reels is the best influencer marketing platform and had a maximum duration of 15 seconds, eventually increasing to 30 seconds. If it is longer, like for a longer video of more than 60 seconds in your feed, you'll need to move to IGTV. Instagram Videos specifications are the same as for photos: square, landscape, or vertical, with the same proportions.

Snapchat

Snapchat, which has been in operation since 2011, offers enticing and straightforward video sharing in various languages. It works with both Android and iOS devices. It offers an exciting discovery section where you may read tales from public accounts to learn about the latest news about your friends and celebrities' stock videos. It is one of the best platforms available. This social media platform enables you to share more videos moments, both live and recorded. It has become popular among young people due to the great filters that offer stimulating effects. Maintaining streak features with friends has recently increased its user database by multiple orders of magnitude. Brands can build sponsored filters and AR (augmented reality) lenses for users to sample regarding advertising opportunities. They can also promote their content on the Discover tab, which features Snapchat-native material based on users' subscriptions and interests. In-Story advertisements, Video ads, and commercials displayed within the platform's selected content are examples of video-based ad kinds. There is also no defined minimum ad spend requirement, making Snapchat advertising a cost-effective and easily adaptable alternative for companies looking for budget-friendly options.

Vimeo

Vimeo is a video platform founded in 2004 and allows users to produce, share, and comment on videos. This short video platform allows you complete control over who can and cannot view shared videos. Its ad-free experience has always been its defining feature. It is safe for consumers, thanks to enhanced privacy and security settings. However, its user database is relatively small, with other strong competitors around the corner. It is, however, likely to rise in the following years.

Twitter

Twitter, a fantastic source of breaking news, allows you to shoot, edit, and share videos directly from the app. You may also use your device to upload videos, go live, and advertise video ads.

Triller

Triller is a music artist platform that has expanded into a social networking platform, with 64 million monthly active users and 130 million all-time downloads. Most videos are between 16 and 30 seconds long. However, you can generate and share videos longer than two minutes. Users make little music videos by capturing various situations with the same song clip, and the software automatically creates them together in random order.

Byte

A Platform like Byte lacks the marketing incentive of other Tik Tok, YouTube Shorts, Triller, and Reels. Byte does not currently provide songs from famous music, and the user does not have an option to extend the time restriction of your film if necessary. So far, at least.

Dubsmash

Dubsmash is the place to go if you're looking for audio-based short-form video content. The main drawback of this is the lip-syncing. This program also has a plethora of other functions and a variety of video styles. You can use the app to add stickers filters and write on top of your recordings, among other things. Its tools might be pretty handy, allowing you to generate some fantastic stuff. The application is likewise top-rated, with a large number of users. You may find new videos and creators in the same way you would on TikTok or Instagram. Dubsmash was acquired by Reddit last year, and its capabilities will be integrated into Reddit rather than being a standalone brand. 

Likee

It is a video app that does not solely focus on short-form video content. In some ways, it's a cross between TikTok and YouTube. If you like, you can stream live, although longer movies are also accessible. The software does have a lot of options that will assist you in making your movies more amusing and appealing to others. The hair color changer, for example, is available and self-explanatory.

Creating Short-form video content

Making short videos can be more complex than writing a blog post or designing a picture. But it's not as difficult as you may think. Here's how to easily create powerful short social media videos:

Engaging Content

On most social media networks, videos are played automatically. You have a better chance of stopping viewers when they scroll through the feed if you capture their attention in the first few seconds of your video. We suggest you begin with your most captivating components, introduce your brand message, video background, and identity early on, and engage post language.

Writing Script

Scripting is an essential step in making great viral content. Scripts have a significant impact on the video that will be produced. Writing a script takes time, but it will save you a lot of time when you start making your video. With a script, you can be confident that you will cover everything that must be spoken concisely and effectively. You have complete control over your message and outcome. Try to cut away any extraneous stuff while you write your creative content.

Choosing the Right video orientation

When it comes to capturing or creating your video, you have various options: portrait, landscape, square, and fullscreen. Setting the format of your video during the video creation process is now possible only on the Web version. During the video editing process, you will be able to adjust the ratio of your video on all platforms.

Structuring Video content

The structure of any instructional video is entirely dependent on your talents and confidence as a video presenter, as well as your subject matter. If you're doing a short how-to video about something you're knowledgeable about and willing to talk about off the cuff, just hit the record button. A clear structure is essential for both the learner and the video developer since it helps everyone comprehend what the video is attempting to accomplish. If your content begins to depart from this path toward the goal, we advise you to remove those extraneous pieces. A pre-determined structure for videos, For example, hook, climax, and resolution, would aid in breaking the time barrier. However, for this framework to be applicable, it must be relevant to contemporary trends and occurrences. It is critical to capture the Facebook audience's attention in the initial few seconds because the next best video to spend 15 seconds on is just a swipe away.

Understanding the Target Audience

Many first-timers hurry to create a video assuming that it will become viral as soon as they press the publish button. They frequently overlook the most critical aspect of content creation: identifying your right audience and developing material for them, not for you. When you understand your audience, you can produce a short video that speaks to them. Even if you don't go viral right away, you have a better chance of building an engaged audience. Spend time getting to know your audience and even more time considering what kind of material they want to see. You can also directly ask your audience to understand their interests and problems. Then, repeat with related stuff. You can also directly ask your audience to understand their interests and problems. Then, repeat with related stuff. Use analytic and insight tools to learn who follows you and engages with your visual content material the most.

Creating Relevant Content

Your material should be appealing to your audience. Consider this: What content would be beneficial to my subscribers? What do they care about and watch the most? What are their interests? Knowing where they are in the sales funnel and trending music also aids in choosing what content is most appropriate for your audience segments and service-based. You can take ideas from the existing older video. Furthermore, the content must also include social challenges, and your share does not always have to be transactional. Many people laugh enjoy fun, amusing, or behind-the-scenes information! Promoting leverage user-generated content is another excellent is to engage your audience and make them feel more important. The key here is to balance authenticity and brand loyalty which genuinely makes sense.

Creating Quality Content

It may seem self-evident to you. However, some marketers become so engrossed in employing methods that they overlook the most critical aspect: ensuring that they understand their target market and developing short-form movies that are clear and compatible with the high audio quality, including a variety of sound effects across many platforms. It's critical to consider how your audience will perceive your explainer videos. With mobile watching, you should design appealing educational content on larger and smaller devices. The MP4 format for video files provides the most delicate quality video while requiring the least storage space. It is also compatible with various media players, video backgrounds, and platforms. You should also use the appropriate resolution and add music to your videos. Social media platforms compress the quality of your video or content when posting, so giving them a good quality video or content is ideal. If you're recording videos on the smartphone, the back camera of your phone is preferable to be used for this purpose. Also, for optimum results, attempt to record decent audio and remove or decrease the distracting background noise. Moreover, try to speak loudly and clearly, and always speak within a few feet of your microphone. Shorts' tonality ranges from melodramatic sentiments to outrageous humor to delicate expressions, giving businesses and creators a marketing strategy and various opportunities to captivate viewers and leverage the popular videos.

Make the Maximum Use of Technology

Try out different short-form video content makers that make video creation more viable. These solutions are designed expressly for the demands of busy marketers and include libraries of templates, stock footage, text animators, and more. Because they make the most difficult, technical aspects of short-form video content creation are so simple that teams can quickly generate unique movies for different consumers. We recommend making one master film to serve as a template, then replicating it and inputting your prospect's specific information to create a tailored viewing experience quickly.

Conclusion

Brands are spending billions on short-form video marketing. The reason is simple: whether you're a solopreneur, small-business owner, or agency owner, short-form videos or youtube shorts TikTok and Reels are an excellent approach to promote your brand. With short-form video marketing, you don't need to develop feature-length documentaries to attract people's attention. Short-form video is the new marketing strategy since it can instantly capture people's attention, develop relationships with viewers, and get your products into people's hands.   As a final tip, here are a few bite-size thumb rules for your short-form video:  1. Keep it short and sweet  2. Hook your viewer from the start 3. Use visuals to help explain your point 4. Be clear and concise 

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