Create fun marketing promos with YouTube’s answer to TikTok and Reels
YouTube Shorts are a direct response to the challenges of emerging video players on the mobile platform. Read: TikTok. Also, Instagram launched Reels in response to TikTok’s emerging dominance of the short-form video market, which creates another challenge for YouTube to confront.
Together they were creating a major threat to YouTube’s video dominance. Google, as owner of YouTube, knew that this new plane of video warfare had to be dealt with, and responded with their own short-form video platform: Shorts. In 2020, Google did a test run of the service in India, found that it was hugely popular, and decided to make it available across the globe in July 2021.
Shorts combines features from both TikTok and Instagram Reels. Like on TikTok, Shorts makes it very easy to snag the sound from other Shorts and then do all the silly voice overs you can imagine. And as in Reels, you can string together any number of videos – for a total of 60 seconds – that are already uploaded onto your phone.
Where can I find YouTube Shorts?
YouTube Shorts are optimized for mobile (though you can still watch them on desktop). On mobile, it’s directly on the bottom bar to the left of the large “+”. Just hit that button and you’ll have the option to browse endlessly and spend your entire free time watching funny videos of under 60 seconds.
To create a short, just press that “+” and you’ll get the option immediately to either “Create a Short” or “Upload a Video”. If you choose to a create a Short using your mobile, YouTube provides you with all sorts of helpful tools, from Green Screen to filters to cuts and crops.
On the desktop, the updated YouTube format also makes Shorts easy to access. Open YouTube and you’ll find them directly under “Home” on the left-hand bar.
Why use YouTube Shorts?
The obvious answer is to reach a bigger audience. Lots of people are spending time scrolling down, down, down, and if you can engage with a few of those people, they might hover over to your main channel and spend more time there. YouTube Shorts, and by extension its competition, serve mainly as an advertisement channel for brands, whether those brands are commercial or personal/influencer, doesn’t necessarily matter.
It’s important to have some short-form video presence though, as this is the format that engages the youth the most.
How can we use them to benefit our channels?
Shorts are easy to access, easy to make, and get high viewership. It’s a great way to get discovered, grow your fan base, and advertise your channel with minimal investment.
Probably the number 1 strategy would be to create a short clip that’s either on the topic of your latest episode, or supplementary to your latest episode. Something that can generate interest for that episode.
Can YouTube Shorts Be Monetized?
No, not at this point. Their use relies more in acting as a funnel to a content creator’s main channel. For this reason, it’s important that you don’t spend too much time and energy on doing the Shorts. Your main investment is your Channel and it needs to remain that way. The Short should be quick, easy, light-hearted, and serve as a somewhat informal pull into your brand and page.
YouTube does have something called the “Shorts Fund”, which gives content creators some cash for participating in YouTube Shorts. It works something like a competition. There is a minimum number of viewership to qualify, and YouTube considers each month’s views, not just the month that it was uploaded. That means a video you posted a year ago can still be considered for the Shorts Fund.
Depending on how you ranked, you could see an additional 100 to 10,000 dollars deposited into your account in one month. The amount varies depending on the viewership and the location of the viewership. There’s nothing you need to do to enter the contest, as it’s all done automatically.
To qualify for YouTube Shorts Fund, you must:
- Follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines and copyright rules
- Post original content
- Have created a minimum of one eligible video within 180 days
- Be in an eligible country
Check out their page for more info.
Uploading a Short
Before anything, you need a plan. And you need to keep it positive and light. 78% of Americans are wanting “feel-good digital content”, Direct Selling News shows in their research. They’re not scrolling around to get depressed, but rather to get away from their depression.
Though YouTube provides a lot of easy tools to create something, it’s generally better to use a third-party editor. This gives you far more control to create and customize a video than YouTube can offer. With a third-party editor, there’s the added advantage that you can put in more customized and original music, like you can find on Smartsound Cloud.
When you’ve got your Short finished and ready to go, download the video onto your phone (assuming you did the editing on your desktop). Just open your app, press the “+” button, then “Upload a Video”. You’ll be given a chance to make a few more adjustments, and then to add a caption and post.
To sum up
Shorts might just seem like another toy like TikTok. But it has all the same marketing potential as Instagram Reels does, and it comes with the massive global audience that YouTube carries. With the format being very similar to Reels and the ability to upload a finished video straight into the app from your phone, it’s also possible to save time and make the same video for both apps.
Be sure to keep it original and find royalty free music that fits your Short using Smartsound Cloud. Have fun!
