Tag Archive for: TikTok videos

TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts Dominate Short-Form Videos In Their Own Ways

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The past few years have seen a meteoric rise in the popularity of short-form video content with TikTok and a wave of imitators driving interest in bite-size videos that can be easily consumed on smartphones. 

Now, a recent study by Social Insider shows that just three platforms have set themselves apart as popular social networks for short-form video: TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

While it is unsurprising that TikTok is the overall leader for short-form video, each of the three platforms has its own strengths and weaknesses that may make it appealing for marketing your business. So, let’s get into some of the details of the study and what makes TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts so popular for this type of media. 

TikTok

As the current hot social network, TikTok easily outpaces the competition when it comes to engagement on posts. In particular, the study notes that TikTok content receives up to twice the number of comments compared to other platforms. 

In terms of pure engagement rates, the report says that TikTok maintains an engagement rate of 5.53%, significantly better than YouTube Shorts (3.80%) and Reels (4.36%).

This high engagement rate does have a downside, however. TikTok is currently the most crowded space for short-form video online with brands posting twice as much content to the platform compared to Reels and Shorts.

Reels

Instagram’s short-form videos may not be as popular as TikTok, but data indicates the medium is still widely-popular with Instagram users. 

According to the report, Instagram Reels has the three’s highest watch rate. It is unclear exactly what contributes to this high watch rate, but Social Insider suggests one contributor may be Instagram’s follower-centric approach. This means that the users most likely to see your videos in their feed are already highly likely to be interested in clicking play. 

Shorts

Compared to the other platforms, YouTube Shorts have shown itself to be a potent tool for connecting with new people and growing its audience. 

The platform noticed early on that users were more willing to click on short videos from creators they were unfamiliar with compared to 10+ minute full-length videos. With this in mind, YouTube started prominently including new or unknown-to-you creators in Shorts on their main page – driving attention to these channels. 

If a user enjoys a Short, they are then more likely to start watching the channel’s regular content. 

Why You Should Consider TikTok, Reels, and Shorts

With each platform’s unique pros and cons, Social Insider believes the best approach is to use each for distinct purposes. 

“Using TikTok, Reels, and Shorts complementarily and creating unique content for each, aligned with the individual’s platform audience and design, is the best approach marketers and brands alike could have,” they concluded.

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TikTok Employees Can Boost Videos To Go Viral

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A new report from Forbes confirms that TikTok employees can and do promote specific videos across the platform – effectively deciding what goes viral.

Several current and former employees reported that some employees have access to this ability via a “heating” button which overrides the platform’s usual algorithm to ensure as many users can see content as possible.

What Is “Heating”?

An internal TikTok document called the “MINT Heating Playbook, “The heating feature refers to boosting videos into the For You feed through operation intervention to achieve a certain number of video views.”. 

According to the company, this heating button is intended to boost videos that will “introduce celebrities and emerging creators of the TikTok community.”

Though it was never explicitly stated that every video in the For You feed was selected and placed using the algorithm, that has always been the public understanding of how the feed works. Behind closed doors, it appears things have been a little different.

TikTok Used Heating To Encourage Partnerships

The social network doesn’t altruistically use this algorithm to promote creators who show promise.

Several former employees said the company uses the process regularly to help attract businesses and influencers.

In response, TikTok spokesperson Jamie Favazza didn’t dispute the nature of heating, but downplayed how often it is used:

“We promote some videos to help diversify the content experience and introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community,” TikTok spokesperson Jamie Favazza told Forbes. “Only a few people, based in the U.S., have the ability to approve content for promotion in the U.S., and that content makes up approximately .002% of videos in For You feeds.”

What Favazza doesn’t mention is that heated videos make up 1-2% of daily video views according to the MINT Heating Playbook.

Do Other Social Networks Boost Videos?

It has long been suspected that most social networks manipulate their feeds to encourage partnerships with brands or content creators. However, TikTok is the only one so far to have a practice like this confirmed. 

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TikTok Triples Its Maximum Video Length

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TikTok announced this week that it is extending the maximum length of videos on its platform, tripling the limit from sixty seconds to three minutes.

The update began rolling out to users over the past few days. As users get access, they will be notified with a notification in the app, as shown below:

As the company says in the announcement:

“There’s so much that can happen in a TikTok minute, from crowdsourced musicals and sea shanty singalongs to feta pasta recipes, roller skating revivals, and more. Now we’re introducing the option for our global community to create longer videos – paving the way for even richer storytelling and entertainment on TikTok.”

Keeping with how videos have always been handled in the app, users can record, edit, and share their videos entirely within TikTok, or choose to upload pre-edited videos.

Is TikTok Challenging YouTube?

For the most part, videos on social media have tended towards short-form clips. From Vines to Snapchat Stories and YouTube Shorts, most platforms have prioritized keeping videos easily consumable while on the go. 

Until now, TikTok has worked within these limits to establish itself as the platform for bite-sized videos. 

This marks the app’s first foray into longer videos, which can demand more attention and focus from users.

The question is whether users will be willing to invest this energy in longer content, though the announcement is optimistic:

“With all the ways our community has redefined expression in under 60 seconds, we’re excited to see how people continue to entertain and inspire with a few more seconds – and a world of creative possibilities.”

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