16 Aug YouTube Shorts: 5 Quick Ideas for Short Form Videos
YouTube Shorts was introduced in September 2020 and just one year later was already boasting over 15 billion global daily views (Variety). In 2022, Google reported that YouTube Shorts had more than 1.5 billion monthly logged in users, which is approximately three quarters of YouTubes’s total global base (Variety). If you aren’t using YouTube Shorts, you’re neglecting a highly visible and populous platform!
So what are YouTube Shorts? YouTube created the Shorts format in response to the popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels. Unlike Instagram and TikTok, however, YouTube Shorts caps videos at 60 seconds. It’s important to note that YouTube requires a minimum of 1,000 subscribers before you can monetize YouTube Shorts. However, once you’ve hit both 1,000 subscribers and 10 millions views on Shorts within a 90-day timeframe, your Shorts become eligible for YouTube’s Partner Program with ad revenue sharing. The program is still in its infancy—you can review the policies here.
Let’s talk about some easy and quick ideas for creating YouTube Shorts.
Reduce (effort + time): Reuse and Recycle!
We borrowed the familiar “three Rs” popularized by the EPA in the 1970s for this tip, and it’s first on our list for a reason. Do you have a TikTok account? Are you creating Reels for Instagram? How about Pinterest Idea Pin videos?
If you answered yes to any of the above options, it’s time to repost that content to YouTube Shorts. For anyone new to the social media game, it’s worth noting that not all of your customers are active users on all platforms. The reason why we encourage crafting clients to have a presence across social media is because the 24-year-old Tik Tok aficionado is not the 40-year-old living for the ‘gram is not the 55-year-old superuser in their favorite quilt shop’s Facebook group. You don’t know how platform use overlaps for your customers, so the safest bet is to be as active as you can be on all platforms. And the easiest way to do that is to reuse content!
So why TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Pinterest Idea Pin videos? Because each of those video formats utilizes the 9:16 aspect ratio, shared by YouTube Shorts. Any video you post to those platforms will easily port over to YouTube Shorts.
If your videos are longer than the 60-second YT Shorts standard length, splice your chosen video into segments. Focus on the most eye-catching or interesting portion of the video to edit around. This may have you rethinking your Reels and TikTok content—sprinkling in shorter videos across your posting strategy is not a bad idea!
Clip Long Form YouTube Videos
Are you already creating tutorials for YouTube? Or videos in which you list tips and tricks to accomplish specific tasks? Take your YouTube video and extract single clips to use as YouTube Shorts. You can easily take a video with five tips and create five 60-seconds-or-less videos that feature one tip each.
YouTube has made it incredibly easy to create clips from your own YouTube videos. From the video page, click the three horizontal dots below and to the right of the video. Select “Clip.” From there, you can select any 15-60 seconds within the video to Clip. You can also record different audio if necessary (choose “Sound”) or use the audio in the video. Enter a title, and click Share.
Your new YouTube Short will automatically link back to the original video. This helps drive more traffic to your YouTube channel and individual videos. The clips functionality supports using the Shorts format to create teasers around new products, tutorials, vlog episodes, and more.
If you’re asking why you would feature the same video at different lengths on the same platform, it’s important to remember that some viewers prefer long form videos while others prefer short form videos. As with the theory around users on different platforms, offering your video in more than one format ensures you’re targeting viewers in both categories.
Jump cut + Stop Motion-style Videos
YouTube Shorts are great for jump cut and stop motion-style videos. Since you only have 60 seconds for a YouTube Short, this style is perfect for videos featuring short, quick edits. You can easily create fast cuts by starting and stopping your video recording at intervals. Remember: the Shorts aspect ratio takes advantage of the vertical phone recording format, so get comfortable capturing video with your phone!
This style of video could apply to a store tour, a product reveal (think rolling out the different fabrics in a new line, or tossing new colors of a yarn into view), an unboxing video, a staff Q&A (“What’s your favorite serger?” followed by quick cuts of each staffer responding with a one-word answer), progress videos (the knitting of a sweater, the process of paper piecing, etc.).
Listicle-style Videos
Take advantage of graphic design platforms like Canva to create listicle-style videos. Canva has a YouTube Shorts template that makes it really easy to create polished videos from images. Check out the YouTube Short we made below capturing the 5 tips we’re sharing in this blog post!
Watch video here and below.
Using this format, it’s easy to create and share YouTube Shorts centering the listicle format. Think “5 Quilt Trends in 2023,” “4 Popular Shawl Shapes,” “5 Types of Embroidery Needles,” “Beginner’s Guide to 12 Yarn Weights,” etc.
Product Hacks + How-Tos
As crafters, we have access to all sorts of tools and products that require specialized knowledge to use. When you share specialized content, savvy viewers will recognize your authority and learn to trust your brand even more. Take a look at your store: is there a sewing machine with a new feature you can quickly detail in a YouTube short? Can you film the best way to knit matching left and right decreases? How many ways can you illustrate how to cut fabric for foundation paper piecing?
We hold so much knowledge gathered from years of experience as crafters. Assume that your followers can benefit from your knowledge and share any crafting hacks or quick how to guides as YouTube Shorts. Invest in a cheap phone mount so you can work hands free, and remember that you can edit out footage later to make the video as short and snappy as possible (Canva makes it very easy to split videos into segments so you can delete any extraneous footage!). Take a moment to write down some hacks and how-tos that feature store products or showcase a special skill you’ve learned as a crafter.
We hope these ideas for YouTube Shorts help enhance your content strategy on YouTube. Stitchcraft Marketing is a marketing agency of crafting experts. We customize every program to showcase your brand, engage your customer base, and generate sales in a way that is nothing less than magical. If you’d like to work with us, contact us today to get started!
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