Continue with the guide on how to maximize short-form videos. Short-form video is a game-changer, and that’s no secret. We’ve all been there, scrolling through TikTok or Instagram Reels and suddenly realizing we’ve lost an entire hour! With the fast growth of TikTok, other social media platforms are following suit by adopting short-form videos themselves. This shift is putting pressure on social media practitioners to become movie directors. According to the Sprout Social Content Benchmarks report, 52% of marketers cite changing content formats as a challenge when planning and scheduling posts. But don’t worry, the short-form video format is here to stay and is worth investing in for the long term. In this article, we’ll give you eight tips for maximizing short-form video strategy.
8 Tips for Improving your Short-form Video Strategy
If you’re new to short-form video or looking to step up your game, having a solid strategy is key. To help you out, we’ve gathered some expert advice from the team at Glossier.
Here are 8 ways to take your short-form video strategy to the next level, along with tips on how Sprout can assist you.
1. Start with research
Check out how your competitors are using short-form video. How frequently do they post videos, and what’s their style? How are they keeping up with trends, and where are the gaps? Use this information to set yourself apart in your industry.
Tools can save you time and effort. They deliver insight into competitors’ video frequency, top-performing posts, and engagement across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook—all in just a few minutes, with no need for spreadsheets or endless scrolling.
It’s also important to analyze your own video data to identify which ones perform best and use that insight to inform your future strategy.
2. Experiment and try new things
When it comes to short-form video, it’s essential to experiment with different themes, trends, and tones to find what works for you. Even the biggest social media companies had a learning curve when they made the shift to short-form video.
According to Jamie Dinar, Senior Manager of Social Media and Digital at Glossier, “It was a lot of testing and learning, and a lot of time scrolling through my own For You Feed.” But after nearly half a million followers and over eight million video likes, Jamie found Glossier’s TikTok identity through experimentation.
To replicate their success, get creative and test various video content ideas such as behind-the-scenes content, FAQ answers, how-tos, product hacks, user-generated content, trend-based videos, and educational videos. Once you’ve published a variety of short-form videos, analyze the data to see which ones drove the highest engagement and views.
Lots of tools can help you compare your videos’ performance side-by-side, across channels, and see if short-form video is having a positive impact on your channel growth. So don’t be afraid to try new things and use data to guide your strategy!
3. Make the most of your videos across platforms
Repurposing your videos for multiple platforms has never been easier. Instead of creating separate content for each platform, you can reuse videos to save time and effort.
Start by repurposing longer videos you already have. You can also use pre-made video templates to streamline your process. Just plug in your videos and let the templates do the rest.
On TikTok, you can find template options by tapping the plus sign at the bottom of the screen. When the editor opens, simply tap “templates” at the bottom of the screen.
For Instagram Reels, you can turn any Reel with three clips or more into a template. Once you start publishing videos, you can also use your own Reels as a template. Just find a Reel you like, tap the three dots at the bottom right of the screen, and select “Use as template.”
With these simple tricks, you can create high-quality videos for all your social media platforms, without starting from scratch each time.
4. Schedule videos ahead
Short-form videos have made content creation easier, but social media teams are still struggling to manage their bandwidth. In fact, it’s one of their biggest challenges. To save time, many platforms have their own scheduling tools, but that can still require moving between platforms to schedule posts.
With these tools, you can schedule your videos to publish across multiple platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, all at once. This eliminates the need to waste time moving between platforms to schedule your posts. It’s a game-changer for social media teams who are juggling multiple channels and want to streamline their workflow.
5. Engage with your community
Creating great social content involves considering your brand’s community. Your followers can be a great source of user-generated content that you can re-post on your channels, as well as a source of inspiration for new videos. In fact, 39% of consumers appreciate real customer testimonials or demos. So, it’s essential to tap into your community for this content and build a relationship with them.
Glossier’s “Dew it Yourself” series is an excellent example of community-driven content. As Jamie, Senior Manager of Social Media and Digital at Glossier, explains, “What makes this series so special is that it was spurred organically from our community—it was something they were already posting about. So it was a good opportunity to build on it and make it our own.” By engaging with their community, Glossier created an identity for their brand that resonated with their audience and made their social media strategy a success.
6. Experiment the right content mix
Step one to finding the right content mix is experimenting with different types of content to see what works for you.
Step two is deciding how often to post each type of content. For example, Jamie from Glossier shared a tip she heard directly from the TikTok platform reps—the 80/20 rule. That means making 20% of their videos trend-based, and 80% original programming.
While using trends is a great way to build a following, it’s important to also establish an identity that sets your content apart. Glossier recognized this and started building a strategy based on product hacks, Glossier associates, and behind-the-scenes content to give people a reason to come to their channel over all the others posting the same trends.
Emphasizing original and community-first content has given their short-form video content an identity—not just on TikTok, but on other platforms as well. So, don’t be afraid to experiment with different content buckets and find the right mix that works for you.
7. Show your brand’s human side
Short-form video is a fantastic tool for humanizing your brand, from embracing authenticity to featuring real employees. Glossier does this in their TikTok and Reels content by showcasing their employees and headquarters. They also add humor to their videos, such as doing silly dances and quizzing people in line during their store openings. Even their promotional content is humanized by showing bloopers from the set or behind-the-scenes footage.
8. Engage with your audience
Engagement is key on social media, so make sure to respond to comments and direct messages. Glossier goes above and beyond to create relationships with their audience by using social media as a tool for two-way communication and cultivating a community. They even surprise and delight everyday users who post about Glossier by sending them products and communicating with them directly in DMs. This builds brand loyalty, and 68% of consumers feel more connected to a brand when they are more likely to buy from them vs. a competitor, according to Sprout’s #BrandsGetReal Report.