Short-form video content is on the rise, achieving 2.5 times more engaging than longer videos. This boom leaves plenty of scope for YouTube Shorts to grow in popularity and impact.
Research reveals that YouTube Shorts are growing by 135% year over year. These short video clips have the power to quickly capture audience attention and engage users, even directing traffic back to full-length YouTube videos.
Shorts offers the perfect solution when it comes to crafting quick tutorials! You can easily reach a wider audience while highlighting important information succinctly and effectively.
Ready to get started? Here’s how you can easily create tutorials on YouTube Shorts!
Understanding YouTube Shorts
When creating short-form videos for YouTube, it’s important that you understand all relevant specifications and requirements.
For Shorts, you’ll need to keep your videos between 15 and 60 seconds in length. It’s best to choose a 9:16 aspect ratio and a video resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels.
Shorts are distributed far beyond your own subscribers, gaining their own feed in the app and a dedicated space within YouTube’s algorithm. This means that the YouTube app will categorize your content automatically and show it to users most likely to engage.
Choosing the Right Tutorial Topics
When creating tutorial content for your YouTube channel, you need to think carefully about your topics, regardless of whether you’re filming short clips or long-form videos.
Identify a subject that aligns closely with your expertise and your brand identity. This way, you can ensure that every tutorial you produce is part of establishing your credibility and industry leadership.
It can be helpful to consider common pain points that are relevant to your target audience. Addressing these directly can help you deliver real value and get more people interested in your video content.
Hot tip: Do you get the same question from customers over and over again? Film a full length video explaining how to solve this problem, and repurpose this into a bite-sized tutorial for Shorts.
Scripting and Planning
Planning ahead is always the best approach, so don’t be afraid to start strategizing before you’re ready to film.
Crafting concise and engaging scripts is critical if you want to cover all important details in a brief video clip. A good script helps you stay on track and avoid confusing or even boring your audience.
When it comes to tutorial content, map out the key steps you’ll be sharing in advance. This can also help you in the editing stage as you’ll have a clear list of text overlays ready to add when you upload videos to YouTube Shorts!
You may also want to explore options for visual storytelling. Using most video editing software tools, you can incorporate screen recordings or animations to help drive your message home and make your videos stand out on screen.
Shooting and Editing Techniques
Once you’re ready to create content, it’s time to think about what goes on behind the scenes. This is your chance to try a variety of shooting and editing techniques.
Optimizing camera angles can help you craft instructional content with visual impact while sticking to the all-important vertical format. Likewise, good lighting can capture your audience’s focus and draw attention to important on-screen elements.
If you want to add something extra to your video footage, editing can be powerful! Use a trusted editing tool to sharpen images and add additional elements that contribute to a broader understanding of your video.
Our tip? For short tutorials, ensure you harness:
• Transitions between clips to add visual interest
• A branded cover image that clearly explains the topic of your video
• A voice over and trending background music to keep viewers engaged
Leveraging Text and Graphics
Similarly, text and graphics can have a significant impact on your video and the ways in which you communicate.
On-screen text can help to support clarity by adding extra information that isn’t spoken. Text can also emphasize specific words or phrases. You can even add closed captions for better accessibility, allowing anyone to benefit from your video, regardless of volume or hearing ability.
Graphics and overlays can also help to keep your video as visually interesting as possible. This could be the key to helping you stop the scroll and convince users to watch your content from start to finish.
Engaging Your Audience
On social media, engagement is essential, whether you’re creating TikTok and Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. Good engagement can drive better reach results and maximize business conversions.
Use comments and likes to encourage audience interaction in your video’s comment section. Start a conversation that invites people to participate and connect to share their own opinions.
A strong call to action (CTA) should appear somewhere (either on-screen or in your voice over) within even the shortest video. This allows you to guide your viewers and tell them how they can engage with your video.
Looking for more ways to engage your audience on YouTube Shorts? Take advantage of these new TikTok-inspired features, such as interactive Q&A stickers.
Optimizing for the YouTube Algorithm
Want to win over the YouTube algorithm and put your Shorts (and other videos) in front of more people? Optimization is critical!
Implement search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, including a keyword-rich title and caption, along with hashtags. Use relevant keywords that speak to the topics covered in your video and the audience you want to target. These steps can drastically improve your visibility and discoverability.
Remember, the more people who watch your Shorts and interact with them, the more people will discover them. The algorithm favors content that is already performing well. If you can generate some initial interest in your content, you’ll be better positioned to find a larger audience going forward.
Promotion and Collaboration
Creating videos isn’t enough on its own. You also need to think about promotion and collaboration opportunities for your instructional videos.
It’s a good idea to share your Shorts across several different platforms, allowing all of your online followers to access your latest content.
This might even include reaching out to your email subscriber list or writing blog post about your videos, as well as sharing across social media platforms. Remember, if you’re struggling to keep up with social content, you can rely on a scheduling tool like Plann to help you stay ahead.
Why not trial your top-performing TikTok videos on YouTube Shorts with Plann’s handy cross-posting tool?
Collaborating with other Shorts creators can also be a valuable strategy. You’ll build your professional video and enhance your creative process while benefitting from access to all of someone else’s audience.
Analyzing Performance
Want to understand how well your instructional videos are performing? You need to evaluate your key metrics to track Short’s success.
Visit your YouTube analytics and look for important details relating to subscriber counts, video watch time, and video views. This may include likes, comments, saves, and shares.
You should also take audience demographics into consideration, as this information can help you more specifically tailor your YouTube Short content.
What you learn from your YouTube video analytics can help you adjust your ongoing content strategy, both for short videos and long-form video content. This allows you to create Shorts (and other content) that respond directly to the areas that need improvement.
Case Study: How to Automatically Caption Your Videos by Riverside
It’s time to learn from some of the best! This YouTube Short is a great example of how short-form instructional videos should be structured. The clip dives straight into important information and uses on-screen text elements to offer both clarity and visual interest. The clip also includes other visual storytelling materials to provide additional information before finishing with a clear CTA that invites viewers to learn more.
What you can learn: A strong, impactful structure is critical for effective instructional videos. You should use all relevant tools and features to craft videos that communicate as clearly as possible.
Learn More About YouTube Shorts Success
When it comes to creating YouTube content, knowing the basics can help prepare you for success. You can harness your knowledge and use it to produce instructional videos that deliver great value in almost no time at all.
Learn more about how to take your content from perfectly fine to totally amazing! Check out more YouTube Short insights and ideas on the Plann blog, and get ready to start recording!
