Scroll, watch, skip, repeat. Short-form videos can make the audience laugh, feel, and be entertained in just a few seconds. People now crave scrolling through popular short-form video platforms to see what other users, influencers, and even brands are posting about.
What led to this rapid rise in consumption of short-form content? Why is it preferred?
Let's look at the reasons in detail.
Why are Short-form Videos Taking Over?
Here's why short videos are dominating social media platforms.
Consuming long videos is less preferred when the same content can be watched over multiple small videos. Short videos create dopamine, which keeps users scrolling for an endless time. Consumers expect speed, and if a video doesn't hook them in the first few seconds, they're supposed to skip it.
Short-form video platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and even shorts on YouTube don't consider follower count or subscriber count in algorithms. Instead, if the content is engaging and is loved by the audience, it'll be pushed more on the platform to reach more people.
Also, when compared, you can see that the engagement of text-based posts is much less than video-based content.
From sounds to dance routines to challenges, short-form videos tend to get viral faster and become a trend. These trends are ultimately being followed and performed by other users and brands, which in turn boosts the visibility of profiles.
Short videos, apart from being entertaining, are also interactive for the audience. With a series of short videos, users can utilise an interesting storytelling concept to keep the audience hooked.
For example, a travel influencer posts 10 different short-form videos while travelling for 10 days, spending time in a different country. The audience will be eagerly waiting for the next day's video to know more about the trip.
Growth of Short-form Videos
Here's how and what led to the growth of short videos and short-form video platforms.
How it Started
Launch of TikTok and Musically
The Modern Era
Conclusion
Short-form videos are a clear way to boost engagement, reach the target audience, and lock them in with creative content. The question of whether to use such short video content isn't applicable anymore; instead, how to use it strategically is more of a question.
With the attention span for the next generation dropping with every passing second, concepts like influencer marketing are heavily depending upon easy-to-digest short content to bring in results for their own and the brand's social media accounts.
