A GUIDE TO YOUTUBE SHORTS

If you're currently producing Instagram Reels and TikToks, it may be overwhelming to integrate YouTube Shorts into the distribution process as well. YouTube released a guide to understanding and optimizing Shorts so that you can at least give it a try and see if it works for you. 

Content Length

On YouTube Shorts, you can film up to 60 seconds of content, however, only 15 seconds of audio can be pulled from their music library at a time. Similar to TikTok you can edit and add effects to your content directly in the Shorts editor.

Hashtags, Descriptions & Titles

Using hashtags is recommended for Shorts to help align and distribute content accordingly. YouTube recommends also including "#shorts" to help identify and further push content for viewers. YouTube suggests that effort should be placed on video titles and the first few opening seconds as opposed to a video description as they are way less likely to be consumed by the viewer.

Best Practices

1. All About the Hook: Make sure you do something to help your video stand out. Implement eye-catching qualities to your videos right away as there are no thumbnails on Shorts.
2. Looping: Make sure you build a strong loop by tying the last clip into the first clip for a continuous video.
3. Follow Trends: Keep an eye out for trends and participate in them where they are interesting and relevant to you. 

1 or 2 Channels?

If you feel that your content may be pushing the boundaries of your original channel, YouTube recommends starting a new channel exclusively for your Shorts content. 

For the full breakdown and guide by YouTube, you can download it here.

PRE-CONTENT PRODUCTION ANALYSIS 

Here's how you can look before we leap and feel more confident when producing content:

1️⃣ Measure which types of content your target audience is consuming. You'll need to investigate tons of different posts in terms of metrics like video views, shares, engagement, etc. Then, organize your findings into meaningful themes and analyze which themes are currently resonating with that audience right now (again, based on those metrics).

2️⃣ Repeat the process in step one, but this time do it for each of your key competitors. In this step, you're not necessarily focused on which themes are delivering the best results, but rather which themes are already saturated by the competition.

3️⃣ Review your list of content themes and look for those that are both currently resonating with your target audience and not oversaturated by your competitors. Those are the white space opportunities you've been looking for!

4️⃣ Complete steps one to three for every social platform and channel that matters to your brand and target audience. This will help you see how your content strategy should vary across different channels. After all, themes that should be focus areas on one platform may not make strategic sense on another.

THREE TWEETS

Here are three Tweets you should check out this week:

1. Ask for customer stories over customer opinions 

2. How Chipotle leveraged the corn kid

3. 7 human biases every marketer should know about

If you're enjoying the newsletter so far,

I want to encourage you to check out The RightMetric Insight Library.

It's full of strategy tear-downs and examples from fast-growing brands that have already helped thousands of marketers identify content opportunities, focus on the right whitespace channels, improve their media strategies, and benchmark against competitors.

In case you missed any previous versions, check them out via the links below.

1. Know Your Marketing Mistakes – What's Working in Marketing

2. Everybody Say Hi to DALL·E – What's Working in Marketing
3. Level Up Your Brand's Digital Persona – What's Working in Marketing