How To Create Viral Short-Form Video Content In Less Than 30 Minutes Per Week
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you've been on social media at all in the past three years, you'd undoubtedly have realized that more and more entrepreneurs, influencers and business owners are creating and leveraging short-form video content as a part of their marketing. That being said, 14% of businesses are still not using any kind of video marketing. And to be honest, can we blame them?
Entrepreneurs are busy. It takes time to set up the camera, brainstorm the idea and shoot content… not to mention the editing. For most, this seems like a chore more than anything.
Marketing with short-form video isn't an option anymore — it's a necessity — and there is no debate that it's the most potent form of content on social media right now. However, it doesn't have to take a lot of time and effort. In fact, it can add just 30 minutes to your schedule each month. Who can't squeeze in 7.5 minutes per week? You can no longer afford not to.
Here are three proven strategies to cut down your content creation time and 2-5x your short-form content output.
1. The podcast strategyWith the podcast industry set to reach 465 million listeners by 2023, you could be tapping into a lot of attention. Listeners and audience aside, the hidden benefits of being on a podcast could be the most powerful. Obviously, getting in front of your target audience on a podcast can do wonders for your bottom line. But where most people go wrong is a lack of leverage.
A 30-minute podcast could have five to 15 "golden nuggets" of information that your audience and the future audience would benefit from hearing. By recording the podcast on either Zoom or another screen recording tool, you can go back through and find the best clips and re-purpose them across your social media channels.
With the reach of short-form content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and now even Facebook reels, it's not uncommon for these videos to reach 10's of thousands of people. I'm no mathematician, but 10 pieces of content across five social media platforms, means a lot of extra eyeballs on you and your brand.
The only caveat is that it can take quite some time to actually edit the videos, which is where you'll require the help of a great editor.
Related: Podcasting is the New College
2. Client and team call strategyNow I understand there is a wide range of people reading this. However, like the podcast strategy, we are simply creating leverage from areas where you're already active. In this case, it may be a client call, strategy session or even a team meeting. Again, by simply recording this, there is no doubt that there will be some valuable, actionable tips in there that people can benefit from.
Again, chop these down into clips, and use them as teasers for your 'actual' content. This will be a great way to get on video in as quickly as possible and give people an insight into you, your brand and the value people can get from you.
Related: 3 Social Media Hacks to Help Your Content Go Viral
3. The batching strategyNow the first two strategies are great if you're really time-poor. The batching strategy is ideal for curating a specific message at a specific time to get your message in front of more people. Obviously, setting time out of your day every day to create content can become repetitive and easily skipped. However, when you schedule a fortnightly or monthly 1-3 hour block, you'll be able to get your month's worth of content done in one session. I typically recommend doing this in 3-parts.
Firstly, the idea formulation. Get a pen and paper and write down 15 to 30 ideas on your market's pain points, desires, things they need to know or even interesting facts and statistics that will pique their interest.
Secondly, set up your camera or iPhone and press record. It is highly recommended that you have a professional-looking set-up behind you. A simple neon light in the background and a ring light behind the camera will work wonders for making your videos look high-quality and professional.
Thirdly, is to get all those clips you just created edited. Again, you can either do this yourself or hire a freelancer or agency to do this for you.
At this point, you must be using video. Apply these proven strategies to make your time creating videos even more accessible.
Related: 8 Social Media Hacks for Small Businesses
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you've been on social media at all in the past three years, you'd undoubtedly have realized that more and more entrepreneurs, influencers and business owners are creating and leveraging short-form video content as a part of their marketing. That being said, 14% of businesses are still not using any kind of video marketing. And to be honest, can we blame them?
Entrepreneurs are busy. It takes time to set up the camera, brainstorm the idea and shoot content… not to mention the editing. For most, this seems like a chore more than anything.
Marketing with short-form video isn't an option anymore — it's a necessity — and there is no debate that it's the most potent form of content on social media right now. However, it doesn't have to take a lot of time and effort. In fact, it can add just 30 minutes to your schedule each month. Who can't squeeze in 7.5 minutes per week? You can no longer afford not to.
Here are three proven strategies to cut down your content creation time and 2-5x your short-form content output.
1. The podcast strategyWith the podcast industry set to reach 465 million listeners by 2023, you could be tapping into a lot of attention. Listeners and audience aside, the hidden benefits of being on a podcast could be the most powerful. Obviously, getting in front of your target audience on a podcast can do wonders for your bottom line. But where most people go wrong is a lack of leverage.
A 30-minute podcast could have five to 15 "golden nuggets" of information that your audience and the future audience would benefit from hearing. By recording the podcast on either Zoom or another screen recording tool, you can go back through and find the best clips and re-purpose them across your social media channels.
With the reach of short-form content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and now even Facebook reels, it's not uncommon for these videos to reach 10's of thousands of people. I'm no mathematician, but 10 pieces of content across five social media platforms, means a lot of extra eyeballs on you and your brand.
The only caveat is that it can take quite some time to actually edit the videos, which is where you'll require the help of a great editor.
Related: Podcasting is the New College
2. Client and team call strategyNow I understand there is a wide range of people reading this. However, like the podcast strategy, we are simply creating leverage from areas where you're already active. In this case, it may be a client call, strategy session or even a team meeting. Again, by simply recording this, there is no doubt that there will be some valuable, actionable tips in there that people can benefit from.
Again, chop these down into clips, and use them as teasers for your 'actual' content. This will be a great way to get on video in as quickly as possible and give people an insight into you, your brand and the value people can get from you.
Related: 3 Social Media Hacks to Help Your Content Go Viral
3. The batching strategyNow the first two strategies are great if you're really time-poor. The batching strategy is ideal for curating a specific message at a specific time to get your message in front of more people. Obviously, setting time out of your day every day to create content can become repetitive and easily skipped. However, when you schedule a fortnightly or monthly 1-3 hour block, you'll be able to get your month's worth of content done in one session. I typically recommend doing this in 3-parts.
Firstly, the idea formulation. Get a pen and paper and write down 15 to 30 ideas on your market's pain points, desires, things they need to know or even interesting facts and statistics that will pique their interest.
Secondly, set up your camera or iPhone and press record. It is highly recommended that you have a professional-looking set-up behind you. A simple neon light in the background and a ring light behind the camera will work wonders for making your videos look high-quality and professional.
Thirdly, is to get all those clips you just created edited. Again, you can either do this yourself or hire a freelancer or agency to do this for you.
At this point, you must be using video. Apply these proven strategies to make your time creating videos even more accessible.
Related: 8 Social Media Hacks for Small Businesses
Merry Shortsmas: YouTube's Vlogmas Christmas Tradition Is Being Reimagined This Year Amid The Platform's Push Of YouTube Shorts
#Shortsmas clips. Youtube.Com/@butfirstcoffeeThe holiday video tradition "Vlogmas" was invented by retired beauty guru Ingrid Nilsen. Hundreds of creators this year are doing #Shortsmas, or 31 consecutive days of YouTube Shorts. The initiative is seeded by YouTube itself, with an internal group surveying trends and prompting challenges. 
inaugural #Shortsmas post. Youtube.Com/@tanishacherry
Vlogmas, the longstanding and lucrative YouTube tradition where creators release daily, holiday-studded videos in December through Christmas Day, is getting the YouTube Shorts treatment this year—with hundreds of creators partaking in a revamped trend called #Shortsmas.
Vlogmas was invented in 2011 by the retired beauty vlogger Ingrid Nilsen, she told Refinery29 in 2017, conceived as a kind of digital advent calendar. Nilsen's daily videos comprised festive theme songs and a firehose of holiday shopping and decor-related content.
As an end-of-year sprint driving hyper-engagement, Vlogmas has also historically served as a way for creators to capitalize on the high ad rates that tend to peak during the holiday shopping season.
Whereas Vlogmas features lengthy, day-in-the-life style videos, Shortsmas capitalizes on YouTube Shorts—the video giant's answer to TikTok, which can be sixty seconds max.
Shortsmas is entirely an invention of YouTube itself, with the video giant seeding the hashtag through its Shorts Creator Community—an internal resource group that shares trends and growth hacks with emerging creators through weekly emails, virtual webinars, and IRL networking events.
A separate group has been formed specifically for Shortsmas participants, said motherhood vlogger Kallie Branciforte, who counts 991,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, But First, Coffee. That group comprises roughly 300 participants who have committed to posting Shorts every day in December. Currently, there are 3,400 videos from 760 channels touting the #Shortsmas tag, though not all refer to the 31-day endeavor.
YouTube hosts calls with Shortsmas participants on Mondays and Fridays, Branciforte said, sharing trends and prompting participants with different challenges: to show their unwanted Christmas gifts, for instance, or chronicle room decor transformations.
The challenge videos laid out by YouTube staff, which are not mandatory, are hashtagged #ShortsmasChallenge and set to "All I Want For Christmas Is You," Branciforte said—with Mariah Carey having christened the season with her very own Short on Dec. 1.
While there aren't explicit financial incentives for partaking in Shortsmas (though participants get a Shorts-branded pillow, said fashion and lifestyle vlogger Tanisha Cherry), Shortsmas allows creators to ride the wave of YouTube's fastest-growing format, which accounts for 30 billion daily views. (YouTube will begin sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators next year).
"Shorts definitely allows me to get in front of people that maybe aren't watching my long form," Branciforte said. "I had a Short that went viral in August and had double the subscribers that month than I would usually get."
Shortsmas also marks a more viable workload than its long-form predecessor, said Austen Tosone, who furnishes advice for aspiring creators to 12,000 subscribers, and who did Vlogmas back in 2018. While that was a depleting endeavor, Tosone said, she has pre-filmed all of her Shortsmas clips this year, and has received upwards of 1,000 views on each post thus far.
"Posting thirty-one Shorts felt a lot more attainable," Tosone said. "The one year that I did all twenty-four days, I was like, I don't think I could do this again."
Amid a kind of arms race for short-form content between the major platforms, Tosone said the hands-on approach of YouTube's Shorts Creator Community feels like something of a welcome anomaly: "It's nice to know that there's an actual human I can reach out to if there's ever an issue," she said, "unlike Instagram."
This isn't the first time that Vlogmas has been conducted in an abbreviated medium or off YouTube's shores. In 2019, Shane Dawson said he would post Vlogmas on his Instagram and Snapchat Stories. And many TikTokers this year are partaking in the roughly analogous #Tokmas. There are 8.8 million videos associated with that hashtag – though again, not all refer to a daily undertaking.
Those trying Shortsmas are free to repurpose their Shorts onto other platforms, participants said. And Cherry, who is more active on TikTok and has just 400 subscribers on her YouTube channel, sees it as a way to kickstart her channel after a months-long break.
"One of things I learned is that people are actually consuming more Shorts than are being created," said Cherry, who tried Vlogmas in 2021 but quit halfway through. "So it's a really great time to start pushing out that organic content."
How To Gain Followers On Platforms Like Instagram, YouTube, And TikTok
Growing an audience is a huge piece of building a business as an influencer.
Whether it's on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or even LinkedIn, earning the trust and attention of thousands of people is crucial when on the path toward becoming a full-time content creator.
Although cracking an algorithm is sometimes a stroke of luck, many influencers have concrete strategies and tips they've learned along the way when building their followings. Some rely on putting out content consistently, while others may utilize tools offered by creator economy startups. (Read more about 13 startups helping creators grow their audiences and make money.)
For example, Joy Ofodu, a comedy content creator who recently left a full-time job at Instagram, discovered that landing on a specific niche of content helped propel her career as a creator. Her niche? Dating content.
"That's all I posted about for about two years," Ofodu told Insider. "And that exploded my audience."
Ofodu now has 114,000 Instagram followers — when she started posting more regularly, in 2020, she had about 5,000.
Read Ofodu's top pieces of advice for growing an audience on social media
Insider has interviewed a slew of influencers and creator economy experts on how to grow an audience on an array of social platforms. Here's how people are building a following on platforms from Instagram to LinkedIn.
InstagramJaden Versluis, a talent manager and travel creator, started posting regularly on Instagram in May. At the time, he had about 4,000 followers.
Three months later, Versluis' audience had grown to 140,000 followers on Instagram.
He found that search-engine optimization (SEO) can influence how discoverable content is. Versluis told Insider that whichever platform you use, "your caption should be full of keywords."
Read more about his strategies for growth and getting brand partnerships as a travel-content creator
YouTubeYouTube has a reputation for being one of the most difficult platforms to grow an audience on.
Paddy Galloway, a creator and YouTube strategist, studies exactly what it takes to gain subscribers on the platform. As a strategist, he's worked with some of the top creators in the world, including MrBeast.
With YouTube's introduction of Shorts — the platform's TikTok competitor — growth has looked easier of late.
"I'm really bullish on Shorts," Galloway told Insider. "With my long-form clients, we post Shorts on their main channel. I've looked at tens of thousands of videos, and I have not seen a negative correlation between posting Shorts and competing with long form."
Read more on how to grow a YouTube channel, according to a strategist who has worked with creators like MrBeast
TikTokTikTok has bolstered many creators to fame.
According to TikTok's head of music Corey Sheridan, livestreams and engaging with comments can help drive growth.
Victoria Paris, a lifestyle influencer, built her audience by posted several TikToks each day and responding or liking comments on her videos. She has more than 1.5 million followers on the app today.
But for some, all it takes is one viral moment and following that momentum. For instance, Nate White, a New York City-based fashion designer, posted his first TikTok in March 2020. His "stank walk challenge" video went viral two months later.
"Every time I refreshed my phone, there were a thousand new followers," White told Insider. "I decided to build on that momentum and give the people what they want."
Read more about how Nate White built an audience of 1.8 million TikTok followers and how much money he earns from brand deals
LinkedInWhile LinkedIn isn't the first social platform that might come to mind when thinking about content creators, the platform has invested many resources into becoming another stage for creators.
The professional social network has doubled down on creator-focused efforts over the past two years with new features, creator accelerator programs, and even podcasts.
According to Callie Schweitzer, LinkedIn's head of creator programs, one of the most important tools to utilize if you are trying to grow an audience there is turning on the platform's creator mode. This feature prompts other LinkedIn users to "follow" you and content will be featured more prominently on the platform.
Read more about 6 ways to grow your LinkedIn audience and get more followers
And if those tricks don't work, you could always hire a LinkedIn ghostwriter to help create content and increase visibility on the platform.
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