Sunday debate: What form of videos do you prefer- long or short?
It’s been three months since TikTok went off the app store in India, but 15-second videos have made a comeback. What matters: time or content?
“Tapping attention economy is essential”
By Yusuf Omar
When Netflix talks about their competition, it’s not only other streaming providers or even social media platforms. They say sleep is the competition. Or anything else that takes your attention away from screens.
We live in an attention economy. When you have someone’s attention, use it wisely. Respect it. Make the most of it. Time is value. Time is money.
When I worked in the newspapers, they said, “If you can’t say it in 400 words, then you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The same goes for video. Television stations often limit daily news stories to one and half minutes.
Social videos differ depending on the platform. With Facebook’s latest algorithm, you’re aiming for at least three minutes. On TikTok or Instagram Reels, you’ve gotta get it under a minute.
No matter what the platform, value people’s time.
It’s precious. Keep the story moving. Make every second count. Give meaning to every word. Cut the fat and focus on the best bits. There’s no time for fluff in the attention economy.
Yusuf Omar is a wearable journalist and co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories, who specialises in telling global stories through mobiles
“Long-form is better for monetisation and respect”
By Ranveer Allahbadia
The personalities of most of the generation born after 2000 have been heavily shaped by the content they consumed while growing up.
The introduction of social media has changed the way humans think and their preferences are slanting towards shorter content, with an inclination for comedy and entertainment.
However, with the increase in consumption of content, attention spans have snapped and they will only continue to reduce if people overuse short-form social media purely for entertainment. As far as monetisation is concerned, it is significantly less than for long-form content because retention is much longer for the latter’ and short videos make the user switch to inorganic or paid content in a jiffy!
That being said, the audience for short-form content also spends comparatively less. Live-streaming and podcasting, which are both significantly longer format genres, are booming in the West. Only content generates respect for its creators and the hard truth is that long-form content creators, in general, are respected a lot more than those who operate purely in the short-form content space.
HT Brunch columnist Ranveer Allahbadia aka @TheBeerBiceps is a social media influencer and entrepreneur with over 2.9 million subscribers on his channel. He also hosts a podcast called The Ranveer Show
From HT Brunch, October 25, 2020
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