Scroll through YouTube, and you’ll likely find short, vertical videos taking up most of your feed. Inspired by TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts are the platform’s answer to the growing popularity of short-form video content that lasts 60 seconds or less – and they’re commanding a big audience.
YouTube Shorts first launched in 2021, and since then, they’ve seen a year-on-year growth of 135%. Now, YouTube Shorts receive over 50 billion views per day. It’s hardly surprising, then, that demand for YouTube Shorts is outpacing the number of Shorts being uploaded to the platform.
YouTube Shorts might still be in the early stage of development, but the growth we’re seeing makes it an exciting time for brands and creators to be early adopters of the platform. Not only do you have the opportunity to reach new audiences before competition spikes, but you also have room to experiment on the platform, test a variety of short-form videos, and show up consistently on social media.
Still unsure why you should be posting YouTube Shorts? From strengthening your YouTube presence to boosting SEO visibility, we’ll break down the key ways YouTube Shorts can help grow your audience and spell success for your small business. Let’s dive in!
What are YouTube Shorts?
Like TikToks and Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts are vertically shot videos lasting 60 seconds or less. Ideally shot and edited on a smartphone, these videos are enhanced with music, voice-overs, text overlays and other creative elements.
The purpose behind YouTube Shorts is to allow creators and businesses to boost discoverability, entertain audiences and drive engagement at scale. By repurposing your long-form YouTube videos, harnessing searchable tags and nailing your video thumbnail, you can easily grab attention, grow your subscriber base and inspire users to trust your brand.
Why YouTube Shorts? 5 reasons to harness YouTube Shorts for small business
Still unsure why you should be harnessing YouTube Shorts for your small business? Consider the reasons below.
1. Tap into an emerging short-form video platform
The first long-form video uploaded to YouTube occurred in April 2005, and since then, the platform has grown to encompass more than 114 million active channels and 2.6 billion monthly users in over 100 countries. All this is to say: it’s a saturated market and one that’s very competitive.
Similarly, TikTok and Instagram are saturated platforms, with one billion monthly users on TikTok and 1.4 billion on Instagram.
In contrast, YouTube Shorts is in the early stages of development, with growth still to be expected as more people get behind the short-form content. According to recent data, YouTube shorts hit over 2 billion monthly active users in July of 2023, seeing a growth of 33% more than in the same month a year ago. That’s on top of recent statistics that almost 80% of YouTube users watch Shorts.
For small businesses, these statistics reflect an incredible opportunity to carve out space and grow your audience (and channel) on the platform by adopting short-form videos early. Whether it’s in the form of product demonstrations, the launch of a new product line, or taking your audience behind the scenes of your business operation, there is every likelihood of captivating viewers and enhancing your visibility by jumping on the YouTube Shorts bandwagon.
2. Strengthen your YouTube presence
Shorts and long-form videos are all published on the one YouTube page and integrated into the main app. As well as showing up in Google search results, Shorts also appear in users’ regular YouTube feeds, notifications, and subscriptions, making it easy to maximize your reach and strengthen your YouTube presence.
As YouTube product manager Pierce Vollucci explains, channels that incorporate both Shorts and long-form videos perform better overall than those that invest solely in long-form. As Vollucci states, “The channels that made Shorts actually seem to be growing faster. We anticipate that audience demand for short-form content is here to stay.”
For small businesses, this translates to offering audiences a mix of content types. If you already have a strong audience from long-form videos, consider Shorts as an ad for your main channel, one that can be placed in front of more viewers before directing them to your longer videos.
Consider the example below from the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast, which uses YouTube Shorts to tease content in episodes by pulling a short clip of the conversation, encouraging audiences to then listen to the full video.
3. Boost your SEO visibility
With YouTube being owned by Google, both its long-form videos and YouTube Shorts are able to dominate the search results in the video category. This is great news for small businesses looking to boost their search engine visibility and reach relevant audiences who are searching for keywords and queries related to their brand.
Just like long-form videos, the rules of SEO also apply to YouTube Shorts. Be sure to add relevant keywords to the title and video description to ensure your short-form content appears when your target audience searches for similar videos and that it is specific and relevant to the keywords used.
Consider the example from Mob Kitchen below, which has garnered over 53,000 views and 1,600 likes. Those searching for a “chocolate croissant” recipe are drawn to the video with a title that clearly reflects the top keywords, including “just six ingredients.” They also use an engaging thumbnail image to entice viewers and closed captions, before leveraging the content with cross-posting to their blog and email newsletter.
4. Repurpose your existing short-form video content
The beauty of YouTube Shorts is that it allows you to repurpose existing short-form vertical videos from Reels and TikTok, saving you valuable time that can be put towards more video content.
By repurposing these vertical videos to YouTube Shorts, you can continue to show up consistently on social media, maximizing the value of your videos and boosting your brand’s reach.
Unsure what short-form videos to repurpose for YouTube Shorts? Consider these tips:
• Repurpose top-forming videos: Use analytics to get the data on your top-performing videos. The Reels that generated the most engagement should be the ones you prioritize cross-posting first.
• Jump on a trend: If you’ve recently posted a TikTok or Reel that harnessed trending audio, use this on YouTube Shorts to see how it performs on a new platform.
• Focus on high-performing content themes: Top performers on YouTube Shorts include educational videos and tutorials, humorous videos, and user-generated content. Lean into these content themes when looking for videos to report from TikTok and Instagram Reels.
With Plann, you can easily repurpose existing short-form content for YouTube Shorts with our handy cross-post tool. By planning ahead, you’ll be able to create a strategic social media schedule that allows you to spend less time manually posting content and more on building your audience.
5. Gain access to YouTube Shorts monetization programs
Though YouTube Shorts initially weren’t part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), monetization options were announced in late 2022 to allow creators to earn money from their short-form content.
To be eligible for YouTube Shorts monetization, you’ll need to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers. As well as that, you need either 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days that are valid or 4,000 public watch hours of long-form videos in the last 12 months.
For those looking to primarily focus on the growth of YouTube Shorts, the former is recommended as watch hours from Shorts in the Shorts Feed don’t count towards the watch hour threshold.
YouTube has also introduced an expanded program for new creators and those with smaller followings, allowing you to monetize through fan funding and YouTube Shopping. If you have 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days and three million public Shorts views in the last 90 days, you can apply for the program.
Access YouTube Shorts scheduling with Plann
Now that you’ve learnt just some of the reasons why you should be posting YouTube Shorts, you’re probably wondering how you can boost the performance of your content on the platform.
Thankfully, Plann is here to help. You can now schedule your YouTube Shorts directly with Plann, allowing you to plan ahead, show up consistently, and capitalize on the huge organic growth of this new short-form video platform. As a small business, standing out from the crowd is everything and with Plann, it’s never been easier to cement your place as an early adopter of YouTube Shorts as you grow a loyal, engaged audience of high-value subscribers.
Go on, and redeem your 7-day free trial of Plann Plus. If you don’t like it, keep using Plann for free!
