Social media’s trend towards gifs, rapid image scrolling, and snappy content, has many people in the digital age feeling our fast-paced lives have shortened our attention spans. And though it is true that research suggests our previously 12 second attention span has shortened to 8 seconds since the mobile revolution at the turn of the century, catching and holding today’s audiences’ attention is more nuanced than it may seem.
In a recent press release, co-founder of the video-editing platform HashCut, Vijay Koduriof, gave some insight for video content creators, “Millennials are often portrayed to have short attention spans, but the reality is that they shun away any unnecessary information. To reach them, you have to eliminate all of the fluff, tell them exactly what your product does, and let them make their own decisions. Short, well-made videos that speak to them are critical.”
So exactly how short and to the point? 56% of all videos published in the last year are less than 2 minutes long and 9 out of 10 of the most watched Facebook videos are under 2 minutes. The majority of videos float at around 1 minute. But for optimal video length, its necessary to tailor videos to the platform your audience is using. Below are listed the best-suggested video lengths for some of the most popular platforms, based on .
Optimal length per platform
Facebook’s auto-playback feature makes 30 to 45-second videos optimal. Instagram has a large demand for “micro-videos” that are 15 seconds or less. YouTube viewers are more tolerant of longer videos with, documentary-style videos of 4 to 10 minutes able to reach high levels of popularity. Studies show that audience engagement with a 4-minute video versus a 10-minute video is not significantly different. But the initial drop off is high. Viewers tend to decide quickly whether or not to watch. And when they watch, they tend to only stick around until it looks like the video is wrapping up.
As video content needs to be increasingly short and precise, and instantly shareable, the recently launched digital video platform HashCut might just kill all three of these birds with one stone.
The video editing tool makes it possible to instantly clip, edit, and directly share favorite videos on social media, and ensure you hit the video sweet spot. The Hashcut clips point back to their source so all views count as a YouTube view. And a case study showed the platform was capable of doubling YouTube views.
“In a world where millennials are inundated with messages from thousands of products online, you have to cut to the point. They expect short, well-made videos that convey the vital information and nothing else. The old sales and marketing tactics with brochures, long videos, and long websites are long outdated.” says Vijay Koduriof.
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