How To Produce Viral Short-Form Content

Today, social media is fueled by viral content, and with user-friendly algorithms, your chances of going viral have increased compared to other traditional social media platforms. There is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach to viral short-form content, sometimes a viral video can be pure luck, and other times videos have been carefully crafted using a social strategy to help increase their odds. Let’s break down the best tips to help your short-form videos take off. Whether you prefer Instagram reels, YouTube Shorts or TikTok videos, we’ve got you covered. 

Participate In Trends

Short-form content is trend-driven and thrives on trend participation. Participating in trending videos, dances, and using trending sounds can help you join an unstoppable viral video chain. Trending audio is compelling because of its catchy and recognizable nature. When viewers are familiar with the audio attached to your video, they are more likely to continue watching. 

The first step to participating in trends is keeping up with the latest challenges, dances, popular songs, new hashtags, and any newsworthy events in pop culture. Knowing the hottest trends on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram is half the battle–if you can nail that down, you can start building a recipe for success. 

The next step is to make sure you jump on the trend bandwagon early. The key is to deliver trending content as quickly as possible once a trend starts to take off. This helps keep your audience engaged and excited about the content you are creating. 

Social media’s never-ending trends have made executing content easier than ever before, and are a key element to an effective marketing and social strategy. Trends can help you constantly generate new and exciting content that is relevant, with little need to plan ahead. 

Optimize Hashtags 

Optimizing hashtags can help increase the visibility of your content. Hashtags allow you to categorize your content and are discoverable by users searching for content related to that hashtag. Social platforms have transformed into valuable search engines–if you can include relevant search-worthy hashtags in your content, you will improve your likelihood of going viral. Social algorithms recommend content to users based on their interests and activity on the app; adding hashtags can help your videos reach more eyes and ultimately connect you with new viewers. 

Social media trends often come with trending hashtags which are linked to an increase in usage or views by users. Adding these specific hashtags to your videos when participating in a trend is an easy tool to leverage to expand your audience. 

Each platform offers a unique way to make to optimize hashtags. For example, TikTok offers a foolproof way to make sure you are adding relevant hashtags to your videos. Here’s how: 

• Enter a keyword or topic associated with your content into TikTok’s search bar.
• Next, click on the “hashtag” column of the search result. There you will find a list of relevant hashtags used on similar style content.
• Find the hashtags most applicable to the video you are uploading and add them in your caption
• “TikTok users should use hashtags with purpose and only add three to five hashtags in their captions to optimize their efforts”.
• Try using hashtags that are directly related to your video, hashtags on TikTok such as #fyp or #foryoupage are too generic and won’t be as effective.

Post Short-Form Content Regularly 

Social media algorithms, from Instagram and TikTok to YouTube Shorts, boost content from creators who spend a considerable amount of time on the apps, rewarding creators who are consistently posting content. A tip for posting regular content is to create a social media strategy; this will include a content calendar, defining your target audience, and outlining your social media goals and objectives. 

Find a posting schedule that works for you; whether that is three times a week or daily, whatever the pattern, stay consistent. Regularity will encourage brand loyalty, and increase opportunities to reach a wider audience. Your audience will thank you when you post consistent content, increasing views on your videos. Viewers will also be more likely to engage with your content when they recognize you from their YouTube, TikTok or Instagram feed. Ultimately, posting consistently increases viewership and inevitably boosts your odds of going viral. 

Another reason posting regularly is important, is it allows you to see what style of content your audience prefers, which can diversify amongst all platforms. It improves your knowledge of what works, and what doesn’t. Perhaps voice-overs perform better than speaking directly to the camera on TikTok, or maybe short-form content is favored by your audience over long-form content on YouTube. Regardless of the metrics, posting regularly helps you catch the demands and desires of your audience. 

Keep Your Short-Form Content… Short

Social media is fast-paced, it is constantly evolving and new trends emerge daily. To increase your chances of success, keep your videos short and under 15 seconds to grab the attention of users. An important tip is to try and hook viewers in the first three seconds of the video; this encourages your audience to watch the video until the end. 

What is considered a “view” on social media? The second your video starts to play, platforms measure this as a “view”. Every time the video replays, another view is counted. This means shorter content is more likely to loop and replay on your audience’s screen, ultimately increasing the views your video earns. 

Use In-App Features 

All social media platforms offer hundreds of features to improve the user’s experience on the app. Whether that’s using a greenscreen, creating your own sound, duetting or stitching a video, or endless editing tools, there are plenty of ways to enhance your content. Better content is key to getting more views, so creating quality, engaging content is key to your growth. 

Adding visual and audio elements to your video can help increase visibility and interest in your content. Accessibility is important, expanding the ability for more people to consume your content. Accessible content means using the abundance of features platforms hold to produce more inclusive content. Here are three things you can do to improve content accessibility:

• Enable text-to-speech (TTS), which is a voiceover that will play over written content 
• Adding closed-captioning to audio content 
• Avoid using text with low color-contrast 

Building content playlists for your audience is another simple tool to encourage viewership. This makes it easy for your audience to navigate your page and use your content as a source of information or entertainment.

Using in-app features such as editing within the app, adding text or audio, stitching videos, or choosing the right cover image, are all tools that can help your audience stay engaged while also ensuring you are posting content relevant to the app’s demands. 

Reminder: There is no perfect outline for success for short-form content, although adding these five simple steps–on top of posting content you enjoy creating–will significantly help boost your videos. If you’re looking to take your strategy to the next level, possibly beyond the realm of social media and into YouTube and other formats, working with us will give you the best chance to elevate your content to new heights.