TLDR: Is Video REALLY Better for Social Media Content?

I’ll give you until maybe the fifth paragraph of this week’s blog before you stop and think, “Wait, how long is this?” and your eyes drop down as you scroll to see where/when it ends.

In this day and age of short attention spans, you’ll hear some people say you have eight seconds to capture someone’s attention with your video.  Still others will say that it’s actually even less than that.

Microsoft obviously knows how conscious we all are of not wanting written text to go on too long.  After all, we used to have to navigate to the Word Count feature.  Now they have it in the bottom left of the window as you’re typing into a Word document.

So why, then, is there this landslide of emphasis on the need for social media content to be of a video variety?

We have recently seen TikTok and YouTube Shorts make changes such that you can now create longer videos on each of those.  Huh?

Guess what, Google?  You get a pass.  When we go to YouTube we know and expect that there will be long form content there.

However, when I surf the Instagram feed and I see video after video after video that users are posting, it becomes a spinoff of TLDR (too long, didn’t read).  Yes, I’m here to make a public confession to all of you today that that actually turns me off.

My strategy with the Instagram account for my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast is that it only follows accounts of those who’ve been a guest on the show.  Why?  I post seven days a week on that account, which means that I can keep up with surfing the feed every 24 hours and being current.

I like doing this because it helps me stay up on what all these folks are up to.  After all, I’d started to build a relationship with them when we recorded our full-length feature interview.  I take that further by visiting them when I’m in their city and/or going to see them perform if they’re doing so somewhere in my area.

These days that Instagram account is up to 565 accounts that it follows.  See where I’m going with this?  When I surf the feed every 24 hours, it takes some time.  Imagine how much longer it would take if I stopped to watch through – in its entirety – every video that is being posted.  I just don’t have that kind of time.

With a traditional (photo) post, I look at the picture, read the caption, tap the heart to like it, and I move on.

There is an exception to the above.  When you choose to write a caption that’s as long as this blog, yup, TLDR.  I move on (and I don’t tap the heart button).

Another exception is, just because Instagram now lets you post 20 pictures in a carousel (maybe even more based on some ads that I’ve seen) doesn’t mean you should.  That’s a photographic version of TLDR.  Too many pictures, didn’t swipe through.

Yes, of course, I get it.  If you’re a musician, you want people to see and hear your live performance.  Guess what?  Just an excerpt from a song would do.  It doesn’t have to be the whole four minutes and eleven seconds.  We understand you want to showcase your newest lyric video, but that’s what YouTube is for.

“So, you’re not going to make an exception because it’s me?  You don’t watch my video posts on Instagram?”  Nope.  If I make an exception for you, there’s going to be a lengthy list of other people trying to plead that same case to me.

I get it that a lot of you are trying to game the algorithm for watch time.  I’m here to tell you that it might actually be backfiring in that there are people like me that don’t even want to watch it through the first time, or maybe not all of it (in its entirety).

Maybe doom scrolling wouldn’t be a thing if there weren’t video posts after video posts after video posts and we took a step back to realize, “Do people really want or need to see how I made my fish fry dinner last night?”

Filmmakers, repairs, maybe even outfit try-ons, I get it.  Some things can’t be limited to pictures only.  But a lot of content that’s being posted in video form can be represented just fine with a photo.  And again, a photo, singular, not twenty.

Who knows, you might just even find that you enjoy the time that you get back by not having to spend it all in video creator mode!

For more than twenty years I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more.  What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to?  Drop me an email and let’s chat so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.