Short forms of content began to take shape primarily because consumers’ attention spans focused on the brevity of delivery rather than quantity. Consumers consumed this content while on the go using their mobile devices. In simple words, nobody had the time or the patience to sift through reams of text or reels of video to get to the point. 

For that matter, the content itself was getting segmented. There was now a market for short videos that delivered impact and entertainment in short bursts. To top it all, these videos went beyond borders as much of the content was visual rather than audio. They were easy to create and gave the creator abundant flexibility to put his or her personal style to the creation.   

Not that the days of YouTube were over, but the seeds of disruption were being sowed one video at a time. An idea whose time had come was an app called Musical.ly. With over 100 million users in 2017, Musicaly.ly was a short-form video streaming and sharing app. According to Wikipedia, on November 9, 2017, ByteDance acquired Shanghai-based social media start-up Musical.ly for up to US$1 billion.

All existing Musical.ly user accounts were migrated to the newly rebranded TikTok app, and thus TikTok, the new video streaming, sharing, and social networking app, was born. 

Appealing to the younger audience, TikTok, allows users to unleash their creativity by creating, editing, sharing, and personalizing (through filters and music) their video content quickly. The use of the platform is one factor that has ensured its mass appeal, especially with the younger audience. TikTok videos needn’t be professionally done. It could be scrappy and still get a million views. 

According to Statista.com, the distribution of TikTok users in the United States as of March 2021 by age group indicates ~ 45% of the active users are in the age group of 10 to 29. Although this data is for Android users, iPhone user data wouldn’t be very different for the US.

The Rise of TikTok – A Nation is born

TikTok has close to 700 million users globally. To put this in perspective, according to Data Portal, the global population is 7 billion, out of which around 5 billion people are active mobile phone users. 

TikTok qualifies itself to be a nation of 700 million people and growing. Unlike the theory of finite resources, on TikTok, the more, the merrier. There is no upper bound. The big bang just got bigger, brighter, and brighter. Think about it; TikTok is a sprawling digital metropolis with its economics, language behavior, and psychology.

TikTok is a slice of us. Fast-paced and impatient. It takes us to another dimension of gratification that was perhaps suppressed. And, maybe that explains the underlying dogma of its spectacular growth.

Monetization 

From a creator point of TikTok, unlike YouTube, TikTok doesn’t pay its creators. Instead, creators on Tik Tok make their monies through brand deals, merchandise, and Live broadcasts. 

Last year, TikTok announced a fund for compensating creators. A means wherein TikTok will distribute funds to an eligible set of creators to make their content on the platform worthwhile.

This fund is not a grant or anything but more like an earned prize for creators when making original (read viral) content. Like every other program (even the YouTube partner program), the TikTok creator fund has its eligibility requirements like nos. of followers (100,000), a certain number of video views, age restriction (18 years plus), geographical location, compliance with community guides, etc. You will need a pro account to apply for the fund. If you are using a personal account, you will need to make a switch. 

YouTube Shorts – YouTube’s Answer to TikTok

With YouTube’s strength in the publishing business and with a host of content creators in its fold, it’s surprising that YouTube did not see the onslaught of the short video format. Moreover, it did not see the impact of the growing mobile user population. But all that inertia changed when YouTube announced YouTube Shorts.

Not long ago, user-generated videos were YouTube’s prerogative. With 2 billion viewers, YouTube is a spectacular platform for creators to monetize their content apart from being discoverable. But that’s not all; to compete with TikTok’s creator fund, YouTube has introduced its own YouTube Shorts Fund, a whopping $100 million fund distributed over a period of two years (2021 – 22). Unlike TikTok, YouTube’s fund is more likely to deliver, and that’s because YouTube is invested and understands the revenue-sharing publishing business. 

What is YouTube Shorts? 

According to a YouTube blog, “Shorts is a new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.” Think of it like YouTube’s version of TikTok but with YouTube’s spin on it. 

YouTube rolled out YouTube Shorts in India sometime in September of last year. And, this strategy was no surprise. India is one of the largest markets for TikTok. Mobile phone growth is around 20% p.a. India has a burgeoning young population (50% of its population are below 25). Most notably, TikTok was banned in India, thereby making India an ideal testing ground.

How to make your first YouTube Shorts Video step-by-step

1. YouTube Shorts appears on YouTube’s mobile app. You can get to Shorts by going to your channel and clicking the ‘+’ sign at the bottom of the screen. Hit ‘create,’ and you are on!
2. Your YouTube Shorts video needs to be 60 seconds or less and needs to be vertical (a 9:16 aspect ratio, this format takes the entire mobile screen) and a hashtag “#” Shorts in the title and description (to tell YouTube it’s a Shorts video) to qualify as a YouTube Shorts video.
3. Click on the link, ‘create a short’; this pops up the Shorts camera. Then, start recording by pressing the red record button. There are some fantastic tools that Shorts camera comes up with – for instance; you can adjust the speed, you could trim or add audio, add text, frame adjustments, etc.
4. If you are editing your YouTube Shorts video, make sure you add some high-impact visual and audio cues to the video. It’s 15 seconds long, and you want to capture as much attention as possible! Last but not least, it’s a good idea not to put anything at the bottom of the screen because that’s where Shorts puts up its engagement buttons – subscribe, like, and comments controls.

Get a good tight intro in. Not too long. Anything that can be read with a more hover is great. Intros get those eyeballs to your video. Remember, these are YouTube Shorts and the attention span is even shorter! But, again, since the video is 15 seconds or less than a minute, it has its advantages. For instance, you make these videos at will and upload them from your YouTube App in no time!

It’s a good idea to make 3-4 YouTube Shorts videos per day to get the garner views for your channel. Since YouTube is aggressively promoting Shorts, your channel has a good chance to make a thousand views, just like that! 

Thumbnails – YouTube inserts those thumbnails for you from the short video you created. But the golden rule is always to create those thumbnails. They make your channel home page look consistent in design and organization. 

Lat but not least, the tags. On a regular YouTube channel – they are vital. But in YouTube Shorts, they are not that important. I have a few Shorts Channel without tags. But as a practice, I would go ahead and insert these in. The strategy remains the same. It’s not a good idea to stitch 15-20 of them. Keep your tags focused on your niche and relevant to your content. 

Sign off

As of now, YouTube does not run monetization (ads) on Shorts. But as mentioned before, it’s a great way to get subs to your channel, especially if you are starting fresh. 

YouTube Shorts is a relatively new concept, and Google/YouTube will do everything in its power to turbocharge its growth. 

If you are a creator, you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity.