Social Media Short-Video Sharing

Short-Form Videos (Social Media) often refer to video content on social media that have a total duration of one minute or less. Although the official duration length for short form videos is debated, most agree on a figure of 10 minutes or less. Short-form clips are designed to be shorter in duration, but long enough to keep the attention of social media users. Users are exposed to a wider range of information in a shorter amount of time, as they engage with a larger volume of videos. Short form videos have been increasingly popular, thriving on various social media platforms. These include (but are not limited to):

• TikTok
• Snapchat (Discover)
• Instagram (Instagram Reels)
• Facebook (Facebook Reels)
• Youtube (Youtube Shorts)
• Vine (discontinued as of 2017)
• Musical.ly (now known as TikTok)

Notable History

Snapchat

Short form videos are believed to have made their introduction to social media in 2012, when Snapchat would introduce the ‘disappearing 10 second video’. These short-form videos were meant for sending between friends, which would transform even further. In 2013, Snapchat announced they were adding a new feature: ‘stories’. This type of short-form video (stories) would transform the social media industry, making short-form videography more commonplace on social media platforms. Other social media platforms would introduce this concept to their own platforms, with Instagram Stories appearing in August 2016 and Facebook Stories emerging in March 2017.

Vine

2013 would also see the release of Vine, a social media platform that allowed users to post looping videos, set at a max duration of 6 seconds. The sole purpose of Vine was to allow users to scroll through the endless short-form videos posted by creators. Vine would become increasingly popular, as they would reach 200 million users in December 2015. As competition increased across social media platforms though, Vine, under the ownership of Twitter, would discontinue the ability to engage in content uploading in January 2017. Around half of the major creators on Vine would leave the app to join a competitor, leading to the downfall of the service. A major citation for the collapse was the inability of Vine to pay the creators for their content.

Impact on Influencers

Short-form videos have given influencers the opportunity to reach their audiences not only quicker, but more accurately. As discussed with Vine in 2017, creators were unable to be retained due to a lack of compensation for their content. For example, TikTok uses an algorithm to help personalize the content that each user sees on the app. The intention of the algorithm is to allow the influencer to deliver their content to their intended audience and to allow the user to receive their own personalized content.