Popcorn Brain

LinkedIn’s fairly new video tab got us thinking about the rise of short-form video and its role in digital storytelling.

Reporting last week from Fast Company highlighted that short-form video is the fastest-growing type of content on Linkedin, with a 34% increase in video uploads this year.

So, how short exactly is short-form video?

The Digital Marketing Institute defines short-form video as content that’s 5 to 90 seconds in duration, going on to advise that “even though the videos are short, they still need to tell a compelling story and have a clear narrative flow.”

Social Media Today recently reported that there’s “been a big increase in longer versions of short video clips on YouTube and TikTok.”

Let me say that again: an increase in longer versions of short video clips.

Clips that are between 30 and 60 seconds in duration are still considered short-form video, falling well within that 90-second ceiling I mentioned earlier, and that’s apparently the sweet spot right now on other platforms.

That makes sense because the average amount of time adults can maintain optimal attention during a continuous performance task has been cited to be between 47 and 76 seconds, depending on what research you’re looking at.

Anyway, creating this snackable content that’s compelling, telling a story, and explaining complex content all simultaneously is a tall order.

What are your strategies for creating compelling short-form vid- Oh wait, look at that, we’ve hit xx seconds.