5 Hacks to Nail Short-Form Video Content (Shorts, Reels, Other Platforms)

If the popularity of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts is any indication, you know short-form videos are it. Nail them, and you have higher engagement, hundreds of followers, not to mention higher chances of getting discovered too!

But if creating engaging video content was hard, making enticing short-form video content is harder. Your favorite social media influencer knows this already. So, how do you go about it?

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Worry not, we’ve got you covered. Here are five hacks to creating short-form video content that actually performs well.

1. Keep It Short (Pun Intended!)

Platforms may be pushing longer video limits now, but that doesn’t mean you should embrace them just yet. Remember, your subscribers most likely signed up for bite-sized content that they could consume and share in well under a minute. So, give them that if you want to earn that coveted ‘social media influencer' title. Resist the urge to repurpose your longer-form content.

2. Add Punchy Titles

If you’re an edutainment influencer looking for more engagement, here’s a hack. Add titles. Show them what to expect from the content (and give them a reason to stay).

Make your video titles short, be witty, and inject humor (where you can) while still keeping it relevant. That’s key to holding your audience’s attention immediately. Better yet, make them branded by sticking to a particular font and aesthetic (everyone loves a good visual)!

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3. Add a Hook

Your audience has a rabbit hole of content they can dive into every day. So, why would they spend a few extra seconds on boring content? To make sure your content is worth their time, try to grab their attention in the first few seconds.

Add an excitement or shock factor to the first few seconds of your video. This ensures your audiences won’t scroll through, and your videos get better views.

4. Hop Onto Trends

This is an obvious one, but you need to post trendy stuff if you want to feature on the explore page. But be warned – trends have a short lifespan. So you must milk the trends ASAP.

Spend a few hours scrolling your explore page and watch out for content formats and social media influencers that feature repeatedly. These could be songs, transitions, joke formats, or even audio. Once you’ve spotted a potential trend, waste no time and make content. Our advice? Spend time perfecting the trend, wait till the format breaks through, and then post your content.

5. Master Transitions

The secret’s out! When people find a transition video they enjoy, they will watch it repeatedly. So, this is your not-so-gentle reminder to master transitions.

We get it; making transition videos takes a lot of editing effort. So here’s some help.

1. Spend some time scripting your content. Write down the purpose of your content, your idea, the audio you’ll use, and the number of seconds you have, and make a mini-script accordingly. This will serve as a guide you can refer back to on filming day.

2. Next, make sure you have the audio at hand. If you’re following a trend, use the original audio!

3. Now comes the hard part- filming. Have your set-up, and lighting ready, and start recording your content. Lip sync to the audio, match the beat, and if you’re following a popular transition, learn the moves first. Remember, you won’t nail the filming the first time around.  So, keep at it till you get it right.

4. Lastly, edit your transition videos to smoothen them out. Master tools like the align tool, the handsfree tool, timer, etc., to create jaw-dropping transition videos.

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Over to You

Those were all our hacks to creating top-notch short-form videos. Now that you have them in your kitty, you can start making standout short-form content to grow your audience!

And if you aim to become an influencer and spend hours on Google searching ‘how to become a social media influencer’, consider taking a structured course for it. At PearlxStudio, we offer a short, three-month course teaching you all there is to become a social media influencer. Visit our website to learn more.