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What is YouTube Shorts & How to Make One [+7 Brand Examples]

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What is YouTube Shorts & How to Make One [+7 Brand Examples]

Did you know that the first video published on YouTube was only 18-seconds long?

While short-form content on YouTube isn’t new, it does have a new name: Shorts. Launched in 2021, Shorts is YouTube’s answer to TikTok, Instagram Reels, and other viral video platforms. But is it worth your time?

Let’s talk about what YouTube Shorts is, how it works, and how brands like yours can leverage it.

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Table of Contents

What is YouTube Shorts?

How to Make YouTube Shorts

What Makes YouTube Shorts Different from Its Competitors

How 7 Brands Use YouTube Shorts

How to Prepare for YouTube Shorts

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The launch of YouTube Shorts comes at a time when many social media platforms are making a drastic pivot towards video content — specifically short-form content.

Even in its most basic beta form, the Shorts feature saw solid performance in India. In March 2021, less than a year later, the Shorts beta was fully released in the U.S., quickly surpassing 6.5 billion daily views. By July 2021, Shorts officially launched globally in over 100 countries.

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Today, a few things have changed. Most notably, the time limit on Shorts has expanded to 60 seconds, and many creators take advantage of every second. In fact, more than 70% of Shorts are longer than 15 seconds.

how to make youtube shortsAlthough Shorts is still in its infancy — and only time will tell how viable it is as a marketing tool – this feature still deserves your attention, especially if you already have a video strategy on YouTube.

Below, I’ll walk through the basics of YouTube Shorts and what opportunities it presents for marketers pivoting to short-form content.

How to Make YouTube Shorts

When you have the YouTube app, creating a Short is one tap away.

When you land on the home screen, you’ll see the “+” icon on the lower center navigation. Once you click it, you’ll see “Create a Short” from the menu.

how to create a youtube short on the youtube app

When you tap Create, it opens to a camera screen that allows you to:

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  • Record segments of a 60-second clip or a full minute-long video.
  • Upload pre-created content from a camera roll.
  • Film a “short” with back or front-facing cameras.
  • Adjust video speed.
  • Set a recording timer.
  • Pick sounds for musical overlays.
  • Add filters and text.

Here’s a quick screenshot of some of the platform’s features.

youtube shorts record screen

Image Source

Watching YouTube Shorts

YouTube has a dedicated tab for Shorts which can find to the left of the “+” icon.

youtube shorts tab on youtube app

Additionally, in an effort to promote YouTube Shorts, you can find a scrolling menu of recommended Shorts on the home page (see below).

youtube shorts

When watching a Short, you can tap icons on the right bottom of the screen to “Like,” “Dislike,” or comment on the video. If you enjoy what you see, you can also tap “SUBSCRIBE” to follow the channel.

youtube shorts vertical feed

Once a viewer finishes a Short, they can swipe up — like on Reels or TikTok – to see a more Shorts from other creators.

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What Makes YouTube Shorts Different from Its Competitors

As a marketer, seeing every social media platform pivot to short-form video may feel overwhelming. So much so, you may be asking yourself, “Is YouTube Shorts worth my time?” or, “Will it provide more opportunities than Instagram Reels or TikTok?

Because YouTube Shorts is still in its infancy, it’s too early to measure its impact. That said, there are a few noteworthy factors that differentiate it from the pack:

1. Shorts provide a funnel to your long-form content.

To state the obvious, people like to engage with different videos throughout the day. For instance, someone may scroll through TikTok during their lunch break but then play a 2-hour long podcast on YouTube when they get home. 

Unlike TikTok and Snapchat, which are entirely dedicated to short-form content, YouTube is positioning itself as the go-to destination for both short- and long-form content.

In this way, Shorts could be a way for creators to reach a new audience who may become regular viewers of their longer content — giving you the best of both worlds.

2. Shorts do not expire.

While Instagram Stories and Snapchats expire after 24 hours, Shorts are permanent — which can help your grow awareness long-term on YouTube.

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For example, if someone’s in a rush and searching for a quick how-to video related to something you’ve filmed, they might find and watch your short videos on that topic — even if you published them months ago.

3. Short-form creators could see a bigger reach.

While Gen Z users flooded TikTok, causing its astounding early growth, YouTube, the second largest website globally, launched Shorts to more than 2 billion monthly active users.

Rather than wondering, “Will YouTube Shorts get awareness?”, ask yourself instead, “How do I tap into YouTube’s huge audience with Shorts?”

According to Nelson Chacon, HubSpot’s principal YouTube content strategist, you’ll want to know which segment of YouTube’s huge audience you want to market to before producing Shorts — or any other YouTube video for that matter.

Additionally, if you have a solid subscriber list, continue to create content that’s still relevant to them — even if it’s shorter-form.

“Your subscribers know your channel for its content and Youtube, as a platform, works best with consistency,” Chacon says.

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For example, say you regularly create long-form content related to your product or industry and find that it engages your audiences. Chacon notes that you can use Shorts to create quick tutorials or step-by-step videos around those content topics.

4. Brands in most industries could leverage Shorts.

Because TikTok has a somewhat niche user-base filled with younger consumers, some types of brands, such as B2B companies, might have a harder time growing awareness there.

While YouTube shares similar popularity with young adults, the content on its platform is so vast that it brings in people from all sorts of age groups, countries, industries, and niches.

Ultimately, there’s a video for everyone on YouTube. With Shorts, more brands will be able to engage with audiences from a much wider range of audience targets.

For example, while a B2B brand might have difficulty connecting with Gen Z consumers on TikTok, they might be able to connect with professionals looking for industry-related content on Shorts.

Similarly, if you target older generations, such as Gen X, your short-form content might get more engagement on YouTube than TikTok.

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5. YouTube Shorts could be less vulnerable than other viral platforms.

Throughout most of 2020, TikTok was facing threats of a ban and censorship regulations.

If you’re a marketer who spends time mastering content strategies on a social media app, a ban or regulation of that app could mean that the content you’ve worked so hard on might never be seen.

However, because YouTube is one of the oldest and most successful online platforms, and it’s owned by the publicly traded Alphabet, it might be seen as more trustworthy than viral apps that provide less public data security information – like TikTok.

How 5 Brands Use YouTube Shorts

1. ESPN

Looking for bite-sized news about your favorite pro athletes? ESPN has you covered by providing Shorts that showcase trending videos, highlights, and fiery commentary.

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ESPN’s YouTube channel has a loyal audience with over 8.5 million followers. By utilizing Shorts, the network is leveraging another format to connect with its audience online.

2. MrBeast Shorts

For Youtube megastar Mr. Beasts, Shorts are a great way to repurpose content from longer videos.

If you’ve been in the YouTube game for a while, consider clipping segments from your existing long-form content to make minute-long Shorts. While it may take some finessing, creating Shorts can breathe new life into your past content.

Plus, YouTube’s new “Edit into a Short” feature makes it easier than ever to cut videos into bite-sized snippets.

3. The Voice

To promote its new season, NBC’s The Voice created a Short featuring this year’s hosts.

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What works well here:

  • It serves as an ad for the brand.
  • It utilizes text to emphasize certain phrases and keep the audience engaged.
  • It includes a banner at the end with clear directions for viewers on when and where to watch the show.

4. LYFE Marketing

Who said informative content had to be long? LYFE Marketing shows that you can create fun, engaging, and informative content in under 30 seconds.

In this Short, the brand breaks down color psychology. The talent in front of the camera simply points to the text which appears on different parts of the screen during the video.

If you don’t have a big media budget, this is an effective, low-effort method of creating content your audience will be interested in.

5. WebFX

Shorts are a great way to repurpose content. You can take content from a blog post, live stream, or downloadable report to create a short-and-sweet video.

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Digital marketing agency, WebFX, created a short to explain the costs behind social media marketing.

With the use of graphics, WebFX delivers great information in a succinct way. It’s likely the brand has an article or other form of content that dives deeper into this topic.

But for social media, snippets are the way to go. When done right, they pique your audience’s interest and lead them to your website.

6. Danessa Myricks Beauty

Have exciting news you want to share with your audience? Take a page out of this brand’s playbook.

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In this countdown-style video, Danessa Myricks Beauty used a short to promote its launch in Sephora and build some anticipation.

In the first half of the video, multiple people can be heard saying “One more day.” Then, we see the CEO sending off a package to be sent to Sephora stores.

Here’s why this works: There’s no time wasted in this Short. It’s engaging from the very start and every frame serves a purpose. Secondly, there’s a clear message – the audience leaves knowing the 5Ws (who, what, when, where, why).

Lastly, this Short creates excitement for the brand’s growth and invites the audience to join in the countdown.

7. Satori Graphics

Here’s another great example of how graphics and illustrations can take your Shorts to another level.

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Satori Graphics is a popular YouTube channel to learn graphic design. The channel features hundreds of long-form videos on the topic and this Short serves as an extension of what’s already on the channel.

This tactic can work well for attracting new viewers to the channel, as a one-minute video is less intimidating than a 20-minute video. It’s similar to how you present a content offer at the end of a blog article.

A reader may be more likely to read a blog post first than read a 20-page report, as it’s an easier point of entry. The same concept can apply to Shorts.

How to Prepare for YouTube Shorts

While we aren’t sure how Shorts will evolve, it’s not too early to consider how you could implement it into your social media or video marketing strategy. Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind.

  • Optimize short YouTube videos: Chacon says global creators should begin to add, “#shorts” to descriptions of videos that are 60 seconds or less.
  • Identify short-form topics: Are there any topics your team creates content around that could be distilled into a few quick tips, steps, or data points? If so, you might be able to repurpose this information by creating a Short.
  • Audit your short-form videos: Have you created Instagram Reels, TikToks, or other social media videos that would only need a few light tweaks to engage your YouTube audience? If so, you could test them on Shorts when the platform launches.

To learn more about YouTube Marketing, check out our Ultimate Guide – or download the free resource below.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March of 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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