Youtube is working on a new feature to its video-content platform that will soon include a new feed of brief videos. This feature will reportedly be called Shorts and will be a much-anticipated rival to viral social media platform TikTok. In simple words, Shorts will display brief videos that, like TikTok can use licensed music as a background soundtrack.
Since YouTube has its own existing catalog of licensed music on its own platform, it’ll be interesting to see how Shorts develops as a new form of content consumption. Speculations are that Google will be able to sway the existing group of creators to start creating content in the new format.
RELATED: Will YouTube Shorts disrupt TikTok’s spurtive growth?
The Mountain View giant won’t need to start from scratch for gaining an audience as Shorts will be available inside the official YouTube app and website. But how will this new feature benefit content creators? That’s what we’re here to discuss.
Highlight coolest stuff in the videos
Since YouTube Shorts will be designed as a direct competitor to TikTok where a song plays in the background which you either try to act out a scene to match the music or lip-sync your way out. Creating videos will also be easier as Shorts, if similar to TikTok, will remove all barriers that prevent users from expressing themselves.
Shorts can be used to push more content as the format will no longer need technical skills like video editing or graphic design. Creators can upload music-related content, remixed versions of popular memes, tutorials, and tell short stories that don’t need long-format videos.
Since Shorts is designed in such a way that YouTube channels can make shorter update-like content, creators can use it as a teaser to their regular content. You can use Shorts to share the exciting news of a future video and arouse curiosity by giving them a taste of your upcoming content.
This will also help creators attract active subscriber attention at content posted on Shorts can force fans to check back for new content.
Keep the audience entertained throughout the day
YouTube Shorts will enable creators to jump in quickly and create content in a frivolous way, almost as an intentional parody of what they offer in their regular channel. The videos shown on Shorts will be brief like the ones available on YouTube Stories but can garner larger views as shorter videos are easier to watch than committing to long-format content.
This is evident from a recent stats report which suggested that users on TikTok spend about 52 minutes a day on the app. Content creators on Youtube can take advantage of this and upload regular brief clips on YouTube Shorts to keep their audience entertained throughout the day.
Shorts are Stories on Steriods
YouTube Stories, at the time of its launch, was a step over Instagram Stories as it allows the uploaded content to be viewed for 7 days instead of just 24 hours on the latter. With Shorts, YouTube will allow creators to upload short clips that last forever, unlike that of Stories.
YouTube will allow fans to check all of the creator’s Shorts videos which won’t disappear unless the creator deleted them. Not just fans, creators can make use of insights available on their Shorts section to work out which of their content garners more views than others.
Can expand your target audience
If you know anything about TikTok, the platform’s biggest audience is teenagers. The company’s target audience was people between the ages of 13 and 30 years. With Shorts, creators on YouTube will be able to reestablish prominence by attracting a younger audience to view their videos and/or keep a section of their videos reserved for teenagers.
Reaching young people will mean you as a creator will be able to move at the pace of the latest trends. It can also be a tool to stay up to date with everything that concerns you and your audience.
Make bloopers of original content
One of the highlighted features about TikTok is that users can create silly unpolished videos without caring about public scrutiny. With Shorts, Youtube creators can take inspiration from it and post content without working on polishing it.
Creators can thus give a sneak peek inside the making of their original content (content that’s posted on their regular YouTube channel) and share funny stories and bloopers that couldn’t make it to their original video/episode. No need for highly aesthetic content and the feature would serve as an island of non-toxic free-form videos that give a throwback to the early days of the web.
Experiment new content types in short format without full effort
With YouTube Shorts, creators can put up various content that they previously avoided and see which of them can be re-explored again through brief clips. If the new content accumulates enough views, you can move the new content type to your regular channel to produce videos in a longer format.
Creators can then view performance indicators that will be exclusive to Shorts format to analyze whether the newly-created content fared well in contrast to their regular videos.
Use Shorts for posting short tutorials
If your channel is about something creative like photography, visual art, or cooking, you can use YouTube Shorts to share how-to tutorials for your followers. Creators can use Shorts as a resource to post quick, easy tutorials to share the things they’re passionate about to their fans.
You can either make a single clip for a whole tutorial or use several Shorts posts to break down the steps of the tutorial. If Shorts turns out to be anything like TikTok, you will be able to write out steps with text, highlight important points with markings, and show your progression using emojis.
Do you think YouTube Shorts will help you create content better or is it just one of those features that will go unused? Let us know in the comments below.Â
