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What Is Short Form Content? How Brands Can Use Bite-Sized Media To Achieve Business Growth
October 17, 2025
In an era where attention spans are going down, and brands are fighting for the best hook for their content, what is the right recipe? How can brands stand out from the crowd and generate business results?
Time and time again we’ve spoken about how social media marketing is essential for companies, it’s your digital image, and you can gain or lose customers with one single post. That’s why brands need to nail short form content and understand the ways in which they can best engage with their audiences.
Do you have to be on every platform? What’s the right video length? What should I say in the first three seconds? Do I have to keep accessibility in mind? In today’s article we will answer these and many more questions, so sit down, relax, and get ready to learn how to elevate your brand’s social media presence.
Table of Contents
What is Short Form Content?
Short form content can be any content that is easily consumed in a short period of time. There are disagreements as to what is the right amount of time, but my advice would be to keep videos under 60 seconds, and text-based posts under 500 words.
Examples of Popular Short Form Content Formats
Instagram and TikTok are your go-to platforms for short form video content (even though LinkedIn is coming in strong). These are the perfect places for videos under one minute, think a clip from a podcast episode with a strong sound bite, or a social-first video with a trend that aligns with your marketing strategy.
If text-based content is also part of your strategy, LinkedIn is a great place to focus on. From thought leadership posts, to relatable corporate content. Keeping it short and sweet will help your audience engage with it more quickly. Furthermore, LinkedIn has a feature where longer posts have a ‘more’ section, which aims to keep feeds with more content, but it could negatively impact longer ideas.
How It Differs from Long Form Content
Short form content is great for sharing ideas that can be consumed on the go, that appeal to emotion and curiosity and that they’re easy to share with peers. However, it also limits how much you can share about a topic.
Long form content allows you to go in depth into a subject. And no, long form videos are not dead. A platform like YouTube sees approximately 122 million users per day, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
In my opinion, they can all bring great growth to any business, as long as you know how to use them correctly. It’s important to look at your audience and find out where they spend their time and what content they are looking for. Timing is key.
The Rise of Short Form Content
But why are we focusing on short form content? And why is it so important for brands to learn how to use it properly?
We’ve seen a rise on short form video platforms over the last few years, and what used to be rare, now it’s something brands (and creators) can’t overlook.
There’s no denying that our attention spans have decreased over the years, and content needs to adapt to these new needs. Back in the early 2000s, blogs and YouTube videos were the ‘it girls’, but throughout the years, we’ve moved from the ability to pay attention to a screen for 2 and a half minutes, to around 47 seconds nowadays.
Shorter videos, shorter articles, shorter scenes in films. People are changing and so does the content.
Why Audiences Prefer Bite-Sized Media
As attention shortens, brands need to adapt to this new era of consumers, as some studies suggest that most consumers will only watch an entire video if it’s less than 60 seconds long.
This doesn’t mean that audiences don’t want to dig deep into specific topics, but rather that they understand how each platform works, and what they are looking for in them. If they want to watch something while they’re having dinner, they will put on a 15 minute YouTube video, but for a break in between work calls, that 30 seconds Reel that teaches them something is exactly what they were looking for.
The Role of Social Media in Fuelling the Trend
What came first though? The shorter attention span or the shorter than ever content on social media? I don’t think we have a final answer just yet, but looking at users’ behaviours in this day and age, social media platforms are constantly adapting to this new need from users. And with 80% of social media consumption happening on mobile, short-form video is perfect for this new scrolling behaviour.
Quick and snappy trends are now a weekly tradition on apps like TikTok and Instagram. New editing updates are added to make transitions and hooks more engaging. Because the quickest you get the viewer’s attention, the better.
And amongst all of this, it’s important to mention the focus these short form platforms are having on things like SEO. Apparently, 2 in 5 Americans use TikTok as a search engine, and 1 in 10 Gen Zs rely on the video app rather than on Google for any search queries.
All of this is changing the way we consume content, and brands need to jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late.
Key Platforms Dominating the Space
A few years ago I could have said that TikTok and Instagram were the only go-to platforms for bite size content, but nowadays there are more and more apps joining in.
In 2021, YouTube introduced YouTube Shorts, understanding this change in the industry. Shorts has now become a massive part of the platform, with 12 billion short form videos uploaded daily, and around 70 billion views per day. So if you hadn’t thought about YouTube before for your short form content, you should definitely start adding it into your strategy.
And even though it’s not dominating the space, LinkedIn is definitely becoming more and more short form focused. With more video editing partnerships, the ‘more…’ button for longer posts, and the fact that everyone and their mothers are on LinkedIn, makes it a great option for brands – when used correctly and targeting the right audience.
Benefits of Short Form Content for Brands
We’ve talked about how consumers love short form content, but what’s the benefit for brands?
1. Increased Engagement and Visibility
In a world where engagement is key, short form content is a golden opportunity for brands that want to improve their performance on social media. And if you’re someone who loves a stat, hear this out, short form videos receive 2.5 times more engagement than long-form videos.
2. Cost-Effective Production with High ROI
Short form content usually doesn’t require the level of production that longer formats do, which means lowering the cost for a higher ROI. Brands are seeing this more and more, with 75% of marketers planning to maintain or increase their investment in short form videos and 21.02% believing it’s the highest ROI content format.
However, this doesn’t mean you should forget about the quality of your short form content, quality will always go before quantity in a strong social media strategy.
3. Improved Reach
A quick Reel or a short Twitter post is not only quick to consume, but also quick to share with others, and that is essential for brands. And then this leads to some powerful insights:
- 60% of short-form videos are watched for 41% to 80% of their length.
- 57% of Gen Z prefer short videos to learn about a brand’s products or services.
Not every Reel will give your brand strong reach, but a good one that fits your brand’s strategy and matches what your audience is looking for, will definitely do.
How Brands Can Create Effective Short Form Content
So, how can brands create short form content that is going to deliver strong business results?
Know Your Audience and Platform
Not every short form content will work on every platform or with every audience. Getting insights as to where your audience spends their time, where they expect to find you and what content is going to make them stop scrolling, is going to be the perfect first step for any brand.
Keep Messaging Clear and Concise
Social media is the scrolling land, so making sure your copy and content is clear and concise should be at the forefront of every marketers’ mind. This is also a great accessibility tip, as the easier to read and understand the content, it will be enjoyed by more of your audience. Learn more about accessibility best practices by downloading our social media accessibility checklist.
Focus on Storytelling and Visual Impact
A good hook and a good story can take your brand to the next level. Most people will also watch videos on mute, so make sure you don’t forget to add captions (to also add an extra level of accessibility).
Use Trends and Sounds Strategically
Trends can really help brands stay relevant, and understand their younger audience, however, you shouldn’t overuse them. The priority should always be to use trends mindfully, and adapt them to your niche or services.
Influencer Marketing in Short Form Content
At Purple Goat, we always talk about the power of influencer marketing, especially when creating inclusive campaigns, and even though some creators are moving into longer format content, short form videos, especially, are still winning the game.
Why Influencers Thrive in Short Formats
Influencer content is powerful because when you choose the right creators, they can target your audience in a niche way. Consumers will follow an influencer for a reason, usually because they can relate to them in some way, or because they trust them, and a powerful tool to share a brand’s message through creators is with short form content.
In a short video, influencers can create something fun, engaging and relatable that resonates with their audience. And most importantly, they understand their audience better than anybody, so they know the editing, the format and the messaging that works best, creating something authentic that can also align with your brand’s values and messaging.
With some studies revealing that 51% of people have bought a product immediately after watching it on TikTok, is a clear sign that short form platforms should be a priority for all brands out there.
Examples of Successful Influencer-Led Campaigns
We have had the opportunity to work with some fantastic global brands, and we know the influencers and the creative that can bring a brand’s stronger results. Take a look, for example, at our Curry’s campaign, focused on highlighting some of the products that help Disabled consumers on a daily basis, as well as their access features online and in store.
This campaign then went on to win ‘Best Social Influencer Campaign’ for its massive impact and powerful creative!
Inclusive Influencer Marketing
And a way to make your short form, influencer-led campaigns, even better is by making them inclusive. It seems like this year brands seem to be a bit cautious of the word ‘inclusion’ but when you hear stats like the ones below, you’re going to want to rethink your strategy:
- Posts by Disabled creators drive 20.5% more interactions
- Disabled creators outperform non-Disabled creators by 21.4%
- 62% of consumers want influencers to represent a wide variety of backgrounds
- Inclusive ad campaigns show 5% higher short-term sales and 16% higher long-term sales, with 62% higher likelihood of being a consumer’s first choice
Partner with Purple Goat
Consumers are becoming more and more value-driven, especially considering the amount of competition brands face in the space, and creating inclusive content is not longer a nice-to-have, it’s a commercial necessity.
And if you combine inclusive campaigns with high quality short form content, and the right people in the room, you have the dream combo right there! Working with Purple Goat can bring your brand the lived experience and inclusive marketing knowledge that you need to create something truly powerful. So, what are you waiting for?
Ready to make your business more inclusive?
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