Tips for Incorporating Short-Form Video into Your Marketing Plan

Here are our answers to the questions we know you’re asking about incorporating short-form videos into your upcoming marketing plan.

Where should I post my videos?

The top three performing platforms for video are TikTok, Instagram’s Reels feature and YouTube Shorts, but we suggest starting with the platform where your brand already has a strong presence. For example, if you have a large following on Facebook, we recommend investing your time posting videos to that account over creating a brand new Instagram account.

Where should I start?

We get it. Creating your first videos will likely feel uncomfortable and push you a bit out of your social media comfort zone. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin.

1. Pay attention to what’s trending – especially in your industry. You should be able to pull this information with a quick search within the platform that you’re planning use.
2. Repurpose content from long-form videos. Have you created videos in the past? Recycling content is a great place to start if you’re feeling lost on your journey to implementing this into your marketing strategy.
3. Consider the camera orientation. Will your audience be watching your videos on their devices vertically or horizontally? To give them the best experience with your content, this question matters. If your video will live on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, it’s likely your audience will be watching on their phone, so go for a vertical video. If you’re creating for YouTube, opt for horizontal. Users of this platform are often on computers and tablets, and don’t mind rotating their phones.

• • There is the option to crop horizontal video into a vertical version, but you will need to ensure the quality of the cropped footage. Shooting in 4K will help!

4. Have good audio. Maybe you’re not having dialogue, just music, and that’s great. But if someone will be speaking in your video, it’s important that what they are saying can be heard, and heard clearly. Linden’s video producer says good audio is even more important than a good video. Having a Lavalier microphone in your toolbox will help.
5. Keep it less than 60 seconds. Best practice is creating videos anywhere between 15 and 60 seconds.
6. Be consistent! Aim for at least once a day to grow organically. If time allows, two or three times a day is best.
7. Most importantly, be yourself. Social media is a great place to show the authentic personality behind your brand.

How do I know what to post?

You must understand what your audience is interested in. A great place to start is by watching videos from similar creators and to explore hashtags that are relevant to your content. Once you understand the type of content your audience likes and create videos based off that, it is important that your content is reaching the intended audience, so use those hashtags. You already know which ones you want your videos to be found in, based on the research you did!

How carefully should I film and edit my new videos?

You don’t need to rush out and buy a new video camera for your short-form videos. An iPhone or Android camera should do most of what you need. The beautiful thing about this style of content is that they don’t need to look like a film produced by Paramount Pictures to perform well on social media. Proper lighting will ensure your videos are clear and easy to watch, but even sitting directly in front of a large window should be enough to take care of that. All that said, your videos should be created with intention and fit into your brand.

Short-form video is here to stay, and we know investing in this will be beneficial to you and your viewers. So start your research and begin creating. You’ll be thanking yourself in no time.