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Short form video vertical content has taken the world by storm, but does this mean that long form content is dead?
The quick answer is NO.
There’s strong evidence to keep creating or start creating long form content and why it can be beneficial to your brand, but let’s start off with a few benefits of short form content first.
Benefit #1: Smaller barrier to entry for content creation
Almost everyone has a smartphone now. This means that anyone can just whip out their phones and create content anywhere and anytime they want as long as they have internet connection. Because we have easier shooting capabilities and the length of content has dramatically decreased, this makes it so much easier to get started into content creation. To put things into perspective, Youtube shorts alone is averaging over 70 billion daily views as of early 2024 and the number of channels uploading shorts have increased by 50%.
Benefit #2: Possibility to get a wider reach in a shorter span of time
Short form content enables you to create using templates, editing styles, audio, etc. that are already trending. The trick here is to tailor it to your own branding and audience so it is relevant to the niche you are in, and not just aimlessly hopping onto a trend because it’s “viral”.
As of writing this, users that used Beyonce’s latest song, Texas Hold 'Em, have garnered over 300 million views just on TikTok alone. That’s in the span of about a month after the song’s release. Virality is great, but getting ‘viral’ for every single post should never be your metric of success. Consistency is always the key and social media should be a long term play.
Benefit #3: Tools to help with engagement
A few good examples are Instagram and TikTok’s native in-app ability to respond to users’ comments. This allows you as a brand or creator to not only come up with video ideas from the comment section, but the commenters to receive a notification when their comments get featured. Instagram also has a poll feature which is relatively new. You can add a poll to your captions now, prompting your viewers to interact and stay on your Reel longer, given that the poll is crafted well. This can be done on non-Reel postings too.
Benefit #4: Ease of sharing
Because short form vertical content is mobile-friendly, by targeting the right audience and using the right content strategy for your brand, you can expect a high content share rate. This also sparks engagement, such as comments and saves too.
Thinking about shareability whenever you create short form video content can help steer you in a good direction.
Benefit #5: Train your creativity
Because of the limitations of video length and production timeline, we are subconsciously forced to think outside the box and create content that still aligns with your brand and target audience without sacrificing on branding and content performance.
This can be a challenge for some people and that’s why getting a creative team might be something that you can consider.
Now let’s talk about the drawbacks of only doing short form content.
Drawback #1: Split audience
Something to consider is audiences that enjoy short form content and long form content are two completely different demographics. If you only do short form content and post long form content once in a blue moon, your long form content will struggle. This is particularly the case for Youtube channels. There are Youtube channels that have millions of views on their shorts, but on the flip side, their long form content does not perform well. This is the result of a split audience.
Drawback #2: Lack of information
The limit in video length can pose restrictions to how much information can be put in short form content. Users tend to consume and interact with short form content that is easily digestible in a short time frame, so squeezing in too much information in under a minute might not be a wise idea.Additionally, users do not actively search for information heavy short form content.
Long form content gives you the opportunity to explain and share things in more detail. Overtime, as your long videos increase on your channel, it’s also helping to build a strong branding for your business, and more importantly, it will foster your online authority.
Drawback #3: Ignoring another way to monetise your brand - Higher conversion rates too
There are definitely smart ways to monetise your short form content.
However, not doing long form can. Think about how podcasts and Youtube videos work. Youtube creators who have a strong authoritative following often have sponsored videos with a 30 second to 1 minute advertising slot in between the video.
Drawback #4: Long form content has leverage on repurposing content
Short form content has less information and is shorter in video length, so it’s hard to adapt it to multiple additional postings. Long form videos on the other hand, can be adapted to multiple bite sized content that can be shared and used to drive traffic to the main long video.
This tactic is also perfect for podcasts and it is one method of repurposing content, where creators or brands take one long form video content and turn it into a couple of short form content to drive viewers to the original long video.
Drawback #5: Short form content is not as SEO friendly as long form content
Something to keep in mind, especially as an online business owner, is Google and Youtube are two of the most used search engines.
As of early 2024, Google is responsible for over 90 percent of the global search market. Compare it to another search engine like Bing, where it only takes 3.4% of the global search market.
Additionally, Youtube is the second most visited site in the world, and with Youtube also being a search engine, it’s no wonder why Youtube’s universal advertising revenues grew 8% higher from 2022 to 2023.
I’ll repeat it again. Long form content is SEO (search engine optimization) friendly. That is a character where short form content still falls short (no pun intended).
By providing more comprehensive content out there whether it’s on a Youtube channel or on your blog, and not limiting yourself to short form vertical content, there are more chances for important keywords in your niche to be ranked in users’ Google searches, resulting in possibly a better Google search ranking.
In a nutshell:
Short form content has its perks in the mobile age we're in, but long form content is just as important as ever, and there is no sign of it being irrelevant in the years to come. As a brand or creator that wants to grow online, leveraging both formats in a strategic and cohesive way and staying consistent is essential for long term and sustainable growth.
Now that you've read this far. Help us share this post if you found this helpful. It's the only way how you as a fellow reader can support TCP so we can bring more value to you for free here. Need help with producing social media content for your brand? Shoot us a friendly email at shaunyoong@creativepistachio.com and we’ll be more than happy to help.
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