YouTube Creators Can Now Make Shorts from Long-Form Videos

Video content creation has been an essential form of marketing for decades – from the olden days of television commercials to the modern use of social media advertisements. In fact, video is so popular that many have built businesses upon it, with some making a career out of filming videos alone. 

Whether you utilize video platforms for your business or if content creation is your business, there is one constant: change. Trends are constantly changing, evolving, and growing throughout the internet. Ten years ago, long-form video content reigned in popularity. Creators would “vlog” on YouTube and Facebook Video – showcasing 10-20 minutes of content either demonstrating a product, showcasing an unboxing, making a makeup tutorial, or simply chatting about their days. As quickly as long-form video content rose in fame, it was just as fast to be snuffed out as short-form video content made its debut through social media platforms, most notably with TikTok. Short-form videos are typically under three minutes, with some content being mere seconds long. Now, rising to the trend of bite-sized video content, YouTube has implemented a feature to allow creators to make “shorts” from their long-form videos.

For a good reason: According to Hubspot, short-form video has the highest ROI of any other form of social media content. The same survey found that marketers planned to invest in YouTube as the top platform in 2022. Therefore, to give businesses what they were looking for, the YouTube platform made it easier to repurpose content you had previously uploaded into the short-form style that generates significantly more engagement. This is a fantastic tool for business owners, as it requires less editing and allows them to continue to use the content that took time and effort to make. Time is money, and any clip you can repurpose for additional views and engagement should be. Go with the flow of trends, but make it worthwhile too.

YouTube is still a reigning platform – designed solely to host videos, making it unique from social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, all of which still focus on making connections and keeping up with friends. Alternatively, YouTube is a platform where it is often expected and less invasive to see creators, businesses, and brands crafting content for the world to see. 

As a host of videos, YouTube allows creators to build up their pages full of content – or offers a place to embed videos if wanting to take a business website to the next level. Previously, these videos were very long; the platform itself rewarded long videos with additional revenue. However, this no longer works in a fast-paced world where consumers expect concise information to be delivered quickly.

Primarily through the rise of TikTok, audiences are used to scrolling through content with the swipe of a finger and can tell within seconds if they want to continue to watch. This same philosophy has transferred to other platforms, including YouTube, where they can lose attention if a point isn’t made initially. People are busy and utilize their phones for pretty much everything in the modern age: work, school, friends, family, shopping, bills, and the list goes on. Everything comes through on our devices – requiring attention to be frequently split. By understanding the psychology of your audience and society, short-form video content simply makes sense, and utilizing YouTube’s enormous platform for bite-sized videos is an excellent step in the right direction for your marketing efforts.