Thanks to the rise of TikTok (and its copycats), bite-size videos are hot. Here are strategies to improve yours.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth about 10,000. Just make sure your script isn’t actually 10,000 words long. Thanks to the rapid growth of social media platforms like TikTok, short-form video is king. TikTok announced last year that it has more than 1 billion monthly users. Instagram has been prioritizing Reels, its answer to TikTok, and parent company Meta began adding Reels to Facebook globally earlier this year. And YouTube announced earlier in June that 1.5 billion users are watching its Shorts each month.

Try these tips to help take your videos to the next level.

1. Create a compelling hook. “You have roughly three seconds to capture the attention of users scrolling through their feeds, so the start of your video needs to grab their attention,” says Emily Petherick, marketing manager of SEO agency Repeat Digital. Share an interesting fact, a controversial opinion or address a consumer’s pain point – anything that will hook the viewer in, she advises.

2. Keep it short and simple. Take a page from The Bard and remember that brevity is the soul of wit. In other words, your short-form videos need to be, well, short. Try to keep them no longer than a minute.

3. Serialize your content. If you have too much to say in one short video, consider breaking the topic down into bite-sized, snackable chunks. “Series are one of the best ways to increase engagement and following on TikTok, as users will visit your profile to find the other parts of the series, helping with the TikTok algorithm,” Petherick says.

4. Focus on quality. Your smartphone and inexpensive (or even free) editing software are often all you need to create a social media-ready video, but that doesn’t mean you should skimp on quality. Before you shoot, make sure you have optimal lighting. If you’re speaking, make sure you’ll be easily heard without a lot of background noise to distract. “Another thing to consider is that most social media starts playing video with the sound off,” says Tim Donovan, director of motion at SalesAmp, a business unit of Figmints. “If you’re planning to create social-specific video content, you’ll want to add burned-in subtitles or closed-captioning to help grab the viewer’s attention.”
Adding transitions, using free software like Splice or CapCut, can also help up the quality and build engagement, Petherick says.

5. Be strategic. Take some time before you create a video to determine what you’re hoping to get out of it. What are you trying to say? What do you want your target audience to learn or do after watching? says Daniel Gibson, managing director of creative studio NiceDay.

6. Be authentic. Your videos – even when they’re only a minute long – should tell a story and share your true voice. “Your passion and professionalism are what your customers want,” Gibson says. “Forget about the haters – we call them white noise.”

7. Add a call to action to the end. This last step is crucial. Figure out what you want your viewers to do – whether it’s visiting your website, booking a meeting, or simply to get them to watch more of your videos – then ask them to do it.

The call to action can be as simple as asking the viewer to reach out with a phone call or email, or, says video platform VidYard, you can get more creative: Ask a question and have viewers join the conversation on your social, ask viewers to vote in a poll on your website or fill out a short form, or invite them to enter a contest with a promo giveaway as the prize.