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I posted "shorts" videos for a month straight, here's what happened

Neville

By Neville in Marketing

· 5,682 views

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I started doing those short form clip videos across different social platforms:
➡ Instagram Reels 
➡ YouTube Shorts
➡ TikTok
➡ LinkedIn

I wrote this post just to see if this is worth continuing. 

Here's the results of each platform after 1 month:

#1.) Instagram Reels

Instagram has seemingly been the best performing platform so far. 

Here's some stats:

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Overall my biggest "hits" from this experiment were on Instagram. Some of the videos really popped off, the top one getting 600,000+ views.

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#2.) YouTube Shorts

I believe of all the social platforms, YouTube view counts are probably the most honest.

YouTube Shorts definitely boosted view numbers on my channel:image.png

 

...however my lack of posting long form video hindered subscriber growth 😞image.png

 

Overall I'd say the YouTube Shorts videos have helped the channel get more views and activity but not subscriber growth without long form content being added:

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#3.) TikTok Videos

TikTok has been "meh" performing so far, although definitely doing something. 

I started with almost no followers, now have almost 2,000....so that's something. 

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#4.) LinkedIn

LinkedIn was kind of a long shot here because it's not known as a video platform, but it's doing decent.

One benefit of LinkedIn is that it brings in a totally different audience than other social platforms. 

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Overall in 1 month the Shorts videos reaches 1m+ accounts, so overall that seems like a win.

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So...are these short form clips worth it??

I think if you're gonna make it a regular part of your content strategy, then yes. 

I notice myself consuming A LOT of these short form videos in my everyday life, and sometimes even preferring them over long form. 

I think the simple winning strategy is this:
Make a ton of long-form content, then have someone chop it up into short-form content.

Sincerely, 
Neville Medhora: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn

 

P.S.
Did YOU watch any of these videos?
Did you like them?
Let me know!

  • 42 Comments

    Recommended Comments

    Cynthia Spencer Proficient

    Cynthia Spencer

    Member

    I've been watching them on YouTube. I should watch Instagram more, but it's such a flow of stuff that I can barely deal with it. (That's why I never go onto Twitter. So much stuff.) I enjoy them because I don't have to spend a half hour watching a video, and they're excellent nuggets of ideas. 

    • maxg Enthusiast

    maxg

    Member

    Amongst all the platforms, Insta is the only one where I came across your reels and followed you. 

    Liked the shorts. 

    But also, now you're no longer in my feed, I think the algo has passed on to accommodate other stuff. The sticky factor isn't there at all I reckon, algo keeps shifting and doesn't promote loyalty behavior in shorts.

    • Johnny Grand Master

    Johnny

    Moderator

    • Moderator

    These are awesome @Neville - just ended up watching a bunch of the Instagram videos.  I like they they are short, punchy, and give actual value.

    And I can't find that Earl Nightingale book anywhere 🙃

    • Susana Crofton Grand Master

    Susana Crofton

    Moderator

    • Moderator

    These are great, @Neville

    Very smart and inspiring!

    • Pat Gostek Collaborator

    Pat Gostek

    Member - Office Hours

    I like short-form content. Because of the My First Million clips, I got hooked on the whole podcast. I wouldn't have discovered it otherwise because I wasn't looking for subscribing to yet another podcast... but at some point I though "Crap, I've got to check out the full episode." 

    For discoverability, short-form content definitely makes sense. Among all the platforms mentioned, only YouTube Shorts have long-term potential. The other platforms are like newsstands, while YouTube, with its SEO capabilities (and Google ownership), is like a library that will provide more lasting value.

    • Michael Muttiah Grand Master

    Michael Muttiah

    Member

    We experimented with short form across Youtube, Tik Tok and Instagram and seeing your results is super interesting.

    We found on Youtube that it actually turned our audience off before we figured out how to not notify our subscribers when we published a video everyday.

    Snippets are something we'd like to return to in 2023 and these results seem encouraging 🙂 

    Thanks for sharing!

    • Thomas Oddo Community Regular

    Thomas Oddo

    Member

    I've adopted the same cross-platform social posting strategy with similar results as @Neville

    I believe the exposure on each platform is weighted to the pre-existing following, which would explain why views on tiktok are "meh" compared to YT Shorts.

    I have a similar dynamic with @goldspotpens :

    • TikTok - 2.5k followers
    • Insta - 37.4k followers
    • YT - 41k followers

    Where I've had some "hot" YT shorts get 10's of thousands of views (in a couple cases a half-million or more), the same content on TikTok would only get a few hundred. The funny thing about the YT stuff is that the popular shorts had a longer staying power than either TikTok or Insta. For example, one video I made in April went bananas in the fall.

    The moral of the story is practice making short-form video content and keep your eggs in multiple baskets. If I only made TikTok's for TikTok, that potential piece of content might not have gotten views elsewhere.

    • Pat Gostek Collaborator

    Pat Gostek

    Member - Office Hours

    Thomas Oddo said 1 hour ago:

    I've adopted the same cross-platform social posting strategy with similar results as @Neville

    I believe the exposure on each platform is weighted to the pre-existing following, which would explain why views on tiktok are "meh" compared to YT Shorts.

    I have a similar dynamic with @goldspotpens :

    • TikTok - 2.5k followers
    • Insta - 37.4k followers
    • YT - 41k followers

    Where I've had some "hot" YT shorts get 10's of thousands of views (in a couple cases a half-million or more), the same content on TikTok would only get a few hundred. The funny thing about the YT stuff is that the popular shorts had a longer staying power than either TikTok or Insta. For example, one video I made in April went bananas in the fall.

    The moral of the story is practice making short-form video content and keep your eggs in multiple baskets. If I only made TikTok's for TikTok, that potential piece of content might not have gotten views elsewhere.

    Exactly… on YT, shorts can resurface after a while. On other platforms not so much

    • Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    This was useful info. Thanks for sharing.

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    Thank you so much Patrick!

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    No worries Scott, appreciate the feedback and your reply 🙂 

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    I did not, but appreciate your work and want to help your deliverability!!

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    I have been watching your shorts and enjoying the topics. 🙂

    Here are a few things that I’ve been implementing for clientes (all organic) and working. 

    Incoming unsolicited share… 

    IG: 
    1. the more frequent the bigger the growth and engagement. 
    2. Share your reels into your stories next day. You will increase views and engagement. 

    TikTok: 

    1. posting times made a huge difference. In your analytics you will find the times your audience is consuming your content the most. 
    2. Native thumbnails made a big difference in views when we began implementing. 
    3. Increase your frequency if you can. 
    4. Algo likes when we post natively. 

    YT: algo changed a few months back.  Also if you are a month in, you’re just getting started. 
    1. Increasing frequency will make a difference. 
    2. Community posts.  YT is sharing it out to beyond your subscribers now. Posting a lifestyle pic
    with a personal share that inspires, makes them laugh or teaches has worked well vs video. Treat it like a FB post. 
    3. A few hashtags makes a difference. #shorts #copywriting - we have use one to two in title as well. 

    Keeping content different on each platform works as well. Meaning, you don’t want to share the same video at the same time on all platforms. 

    I’m done babbling. 

    PS. I love and look forward to all your emails. Thanks for all the great shares! 

    Happy New Year, Neville! 

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    Anna THESE TIPS ARE GOLD!! THANK YOU!!

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    Oh, wow. So much work to repurpose on these platforms. 
    Also, strange shorts don't bring subs.
    I'm thinking of repurposing my viral twitter threads to LinkedIn and maybe trying YouTube in q1.

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    I'd say do it Aleksandr!

    The worst outcome is....well, there's not really a bad outcome it seems 🙂 

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    The owner saying not to post the blog about shoe hospital was funny to me! 

    I’ve followed you forever I joined the other kopy course and I loveeeeee it and I have your book it’s a great resource to check in with all the time 

    I was wondering if you could share the type of membership site you use the features are what I want for my ministry membership!!
     

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    Thank you LaKeisha! 

    We heavily customize forum software for our community, but it's pretty technically intensive...I would maybe recommed Circle.so for an easy community!

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    I watched them on YouTube and enjoy them a lot. To be honest could not keep up with every long video you posted, but shorts are spot on

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    That's amazing to hear VA!!

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    Hey Grace, yes it was my first planned-out batch of content for TikTok. I had an account and posted a video or two for testing purposes but nothing intentionally planned.

    • Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    Thanks for sharing, Neville.

    Was this your first batch of content on Tiktok?

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    I sure did watch the videos and I've also started learning video editing to start my own clip agency, inspired by one of these videos. Coz writing services have landed me zero clients in the last 4 months 😞 

    Neville Grand Master

    Neville

    Administrator

    • Administrator

    Wow Shivin glad these have got you to take action!

    Guest Anonymous

    Anonymous

    Love it!  You should absolutely keep it up.  I've been watching your shorts that you've been posting and they're amazing 'teasers' for the long form.  

    I think you hit the nail on the head.  I'm implementing this in my business as well, and seeing somewhat similar growth (on a much smaller scale).  

    Love your content!