Short-form video has been one of the most important aspects of digital marketers’ strategies for several years. Through platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, brands found they could reach their target audience more effectively by incorporating shorter videos into their content, as opposed to focusing only on still photos and text.

However, we’re seeing more sites test the waters with short-form video formats this year, even on platforms that typically utilize longer forms of content. For example, YouTube Shorts is now earning billions of views, and LinkedIn users are gravitating toward shorter videos to gain the most valuable insights. Keep reading to learn more about why short-form video has become so effective and how you can expect brands to use the format in the coming months.

How Short Form Video Became Popular

Short-form video first exploded in popularity among users on some of the first social network sites, including Facebook and Instagram. As of 2023, Facebook users now watch more than 100 million hours of video on the platform each day, according to Meta. There are many reasons why consumers are so eager to watch videos on social media. The human eye is naturally attracted to movement, which makes it easier for video content to grab and keep their attention. It’s also easier to introduce a more relatable side to your brand on video, with compelling visual elements and voiceovers that help tell a more complete story. As a result, Facebook videos earn an average engagement rate of about 6 percent, while photos and links earn about 4.8 percent and 3.4 percent respectively.

Short-form video has driven real results for brands on Facebook and Instagram, too. Half of all Instagram users report that they have gone to a brand’s website to purchase a product after viewing a video in their Story. Video not only helps businesses catch consumers’ attention, but also retain their interest and quickly drive them to the next step in the purchasing process.

Following the success of video on Facebook and Instagram, TikTok saw unprecedented growth as a social media platform, due in part to its exclusive use of short-form video. The app now has 50 million daily active users and an average engagement rate of 17.5 percent. The short-form content produced on TikTok is so engaging, in fact, that users spend an average of 95 minutes in the app each day. Brands quickly jumped on the site’s large and engaged audience. TikTok advertisers increased their overall spend by 29 percent in 2022, making it the fastest-growing digital ad platform. These days, every other social media site is hoping to replicate TikTok’s success with a short-form video platform of their own.

Where Short Form Video is Going

With the value of short-form video now well established, other social platforms know they need to find ways to incorporate this form of content into their models to attract a larger audience. Recently, several platforms that have previously focused on long-form content have adjusted their app formats to accommodate more short-form video.

YouTube has long had success with its huge library of video content, but most videos posted to the site were several minutes or even hours in length. To diversify their content offerings, YouTube introduced YouTube Shorts last year as their new form of short, easy-to-consume video content. The vertical format videos function similarly to other short-form videos, with auto-scroll features and video lengths less than 60 seconds. As a whole, YouTube Shorts now receives more than 50 billion daily views.

While the vertical format of YouTube Shorts is similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels, it’s steadily built its own audience of consumers and businesses. For brands, YouTube Shorts is a natural way for them to support their long-form YouTube content with bite-sized videos. YouTube Shorts also benefits from a massive built-in audience. YouTube has been the second most-used social media site for years, so by investing in YouTube Shorts, businesses have assurance that their key audience will see their short-form video content. YouTube’s existing audience is also broader than Instagram or TikTok, which tend to have more millennial and Gen Z users. Brands who want to reach older consumers may find more success with YouTube Shorts.

LinkedIn may not seem like the most obvious channel for video content, but for B2B and professional services brands, it can be a very effective strategy to increase engagement. According to LinkedIn, video content generates up to 20 times more shares than any other type of post on its platform. Its most-watched videos are less than 30 seconds, with those videos showing a 200 percent increase in completion rates (Sprout Social). Most people on LinkedIn turn to the platform to form “connections” with businesses and colleagues, and video can more quickly and effectively communicate the deeper insights many users are looking for.