How to make Viral Video Shorts
Making Viral Video Shorts is not easy, and capturing attention swiftly is crucial for e-commerce success.
Social media platforms, with their emphasis on short-form content, have transformed how brands engage with customers.Â
Recent studies reveal that social media influences nearly 71% of consumers during their purchase decisions. Not only that, but brands that leverage short-form video content increase their ROI by an average of 30%. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts provide a prime opportunity to showcase products and engage new customers.
In this article, we’ll break down why short-form content works so well. We’ll explore key strategies for creating content that connects, and how collaborating with creators can give competitive edges.
Why Short-Form Content?
Video Short-form content (under 60 seconds) thrives because it’s fast, engaging, and digestible. Short-form videos get shared 1200% more than text and images combined, allowing brands to expand their reach effortlessly. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts capitalize on this trend with viral, snackable content that pulls in viewers and encourages brand interaction.
Plus, with an average attention span of around 8 seconds, capturing interest quickly is vital to keeping potential customers engaged. Viral video shorts and other forms of short content allow you to deliver a sharp, clear message that keeps your audience entertained and wanting more
Create Video Shorts that Resonates with Your Audience
To make an impact, your content must resonate emotionally with your target audience. People engage with authentic, relatable stories that reflect their experiences.Â
A great example is YouTuber Jenny Hoyos, who crafts her content around universal themes of simplicity. This approach makes her videos accessible to a global audience, including non-English speakers, despite the English script and audio.
E-commerce brands can leverage this tactic by sharing real-life applications of their products, customer testimonials, or behind-the-scenes footage. The goal is to create relatable stories that your audience can see themselves in.
Tip: Keep your stories clear and simple, ensuring your message reaches a broad and diverse demographic.
Platform-Specific Strategies for Brands
Each social media platform has unique audience behaviors and preferences for video short content. It is crucial to tailor your content for each platform.
Youtube Shorts: Viral Video Shorts Content for Brand Awareness
- Audience and Content: YouTube Shorts typically attracts a more detail-oriented audience compared to TikTok. This means a more story-driven, slower-paced approach often works best. Detailed narratives are effective at holding viewers’ attention for the duration of the video.
- Length and Structure: The optimal length for viral YouTube Shorts is around 34 seconds. Since retention is key, aim for a high retention rate (around 90%) to boost impressions and virality. Every second counts.
- Hook and Visuals: since thumbnails for YouTube Shorts are automatically generated, focus on creating a compelling title and strong hook in the first few seconds of the video to grab attention and prevent viewers from scrolling away. The video’s story should flow naturally from that initial hook.
- Driving sales on YouTube Shorts: while YouTube Shorts excels in brand awareness and engagement, it currently lacks robust e-commerce integrations, however, you can maximize your sales by setting up a network of creators using Upfluence to promote your brand.
TikTok: Selling Through Viral Video Shorts.
- Audience and Content: TikTok’s younger audience favors fast-paced, bite-sized content that delivers entertainment or information almost instantly. Videos on TikTok are typically shorter, ranging between 10 to 20 seconds, and need to provide value quickly.
- E-commerce Integrations: TikTok Shop is a standout feature that allows brands to link products directly in their videos, creating a seamless shopping experience. Users can browse and purchase products without leaving the app, making TikTok a powerful platform for driving immediate sales.
- Content Style: Action-packed and trend-driven content thrives on TikTok. Unlike YouTube Shorts, which benefit from storytelling, TikTok videos should get straight to the point, with quick hooks and rapid payoffs. Extended narratives or slow development can lose viewers’ interest.
- Engagement Tactics: To succeed on TikTok, the focus should be on concise, high-energy clips that captivate viewers within the first few seconds. The algorithm favors videos that hook viewers immediately and provide rapid entertainment or information.
Instagram Reel: Build a customer base Through Video Shorts.
- Audience and Content: Like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels tends to attract a more mature audience. However, the platform’s focus is more on highly visual content. Since many users watch Reels on mute, integrating text overlays and subtitles is crucial to keeping your videos engaging even without sound.
- Instagram Shops: Instagram integrates shopping features directly into its platform through Instagram Shops. Brands can tag products within Reels, allowing users to browse and buy without leaving the app. You can even create your landing pages and storefronts if you are looking for a customized experience!
- Visual and Shareability Focus: Instagram’s visual-heavy platform means that content needs to be aesthetically appealing and easy to understand at a glance. Shareable content is key, as Instagram’s sharing features (e.g., Stories, DMs) promote viral engagement. Eye-catching visuals and clean design enhance shareability.
Key Differences Across Platforms
Algorithms
- YouTube Shorts: prioritizes viewer retention, watch time, and overall channel performance.
- TikTok: For You Page (FYP) relies on captions, sounds, and hashtags, optimizing for personalization.Â
- Instagram Reels: favors engagement metrics and content relevance.
Audience
- YouTube Shorts: Appeals to an audience that appreciates detailed, story-based content.
- TikTok: Younger users with lower attention spans who prefer quick, impactful short videos.
- Instagram Reels: A visually oriented audience that often watches on mute, requiring strong visual cues and subtitles.
Video Shorts Pacing
- YouTube Shorts: Slower-paced, narrative-driven short video content that develops a story throughout the video.
- TikTok: Fast-paced, action-driven content that delivers rapid entertainment or value.
- Instagram Reels: Slower than TikTok but still focused on immediate visual appeal and easy shareability.
Content Length
- YouTube Shorts: Viral content averages 34 seconds, allowing for detailed storytelling.
- TikTok: Shorter videos (10-20 seconds) with quick payoffs work best.
- Instagram Reels: Between 20 and 30 seconds to include clear visual clues for mute viewers.
Visuals and Audio
- YouTube Shorts: Both visuals and audio are important, with an emphasis on compelling hooks in the first frame.
- TikTok: More reliant on trending sounds and fast-paced clips, with less focus on detailed visuals.
- Instagram Reels: Primarily visual, designed for mute playback with the help of text overlays and subtitles.
Tip: Continuously test and adapt your content for each platform, while maintaining a cohesive brand message.
Universal Tips For Making Viral Video Shorts
Hook Your Audience Quickly
In short video content, grabbing attention instantly is non-negotiable. Whether it’s a bold visual, an unexpected product reveal, or an intriguing question, a strong hook can make all the difference. Remember, with an attention span of only 8 seconds, your opening visuals and statements must count. Since viewers’ attention span is short, especially with platforms like TikTok and Reels, focus on compelling visuals and statements in the first few seconds.
Tip: Try starting with a transformation, a shocking statistic, or an eye-catching statement that immediately draws in viewers.
Focus on Retention and Rewatchability
To maximize engagement, it’s not just about keeping viewers until the end—it’s about encouraging them to rewatch. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts reward content with high retention rates and re-watchability. Industry experts recommend aiming for a 90% retention rate or higher to increase your chances of going viral.
For e-commerce, consider producing tutorials, quick tips, or surprising uses for your products that viewers will want to revisit.
Tip: Ensure every second of your content is valuable. If viewers miss something important the first time, they’ll likely watch it again.
Analyze and Adapt Your Content
Use platform analytics such as YouTube Analytics and TikTok Insights to track viewer behavior and understand what keeps them engaged. Knowing your audience’s behavior is key to refining your content strategy. Jenny Hoyos uses readability checkers to ensure her content remains simple, targeting a fifth-grade reading level. Brands should similarly analyze metrics like watch time, likes, and shares to continuously optimize their content.
Tip: Use tools like TikTok Insights and YouTube Analytics to track viewer behavior and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Drive Sales with Storytelling
Embedding your product into a story can significantly boost sales. Focus on how your product solves a problem or enhances the lifestyle of your target audience rather than solely on its features. For example, a fitness brand might show the emotional journey of someone transforming their health, subtly featuring their products.
End with a strong call-to-action (CTA) to drive traffic to your website or promote a special offer. Call-to-actions should be clear and direct, even in short videos, to maximize conversion. Storytelling can make the purchasing process feel more natural and authentic.
Why Not Partner with Creators?
Collaborating with creators is a powerful strategy for expanding your reach. Statistics show that 71% of marketers believe influencer marketing improves the quality of their leads and traffic. Creators bring authenticity and engagement to your brand, helping it break through the noise.
Platforms like Upfluence can help streamline this process by connecting you with the right influencers for your brand. Here’s how Upfluence can enhance your influencer marketing strategy:
- Seamless E-commerce Integration: Upfluence is the only Influencer marketing platform fully integrated with Amazon, and with all major e-commerce platforms of choice. This allows brands to directly track sales attributed to influencer partnerships and optimize campaigns based on real sales data, as well as offer discount codes and affiliate links to influencers for precise sales attribution.
- Discover the Perfect Influencers: Upfluence’s quality creator database allows you to filter through millions of influencers by industry, follower count, engagement rate, niche, and demographics.
- Authentic Engagement: you can tap into influencers who have already established trust with their audience and find new creators directly from your already existing customers.
- Data-Driven Insights: Upfluence provides detailed analytics on campaign performance, ROI, and Sales, in real time.
Some brands, however, prefer to maintain control over their messaging by producing content in-house, which is particularly effective when the brand has a strong, resonant voice.
Brand Collaborations and Marketing Takeaway
For brands looking to use influencer marketing and to make viral short videos, it’s crucial to tailor the campaign based on the platform:
- YouTube Shorts is ideal for more story-driven marketing campaigns where brands want to integrate their product into a narrative that deeply engages viewers.
- TikTok is better for fast, viral campaigns where the product or brand can be showcased quickly and entertainingly.
- Instagram Reels works well for visual campaigns, where aesthetic appeal and shareability are paramount. Brands can benefit from influencers creating highly visual content with clear captions to drive engagement, even when viewers don’t turn on the sound.
