I REALLY Didn't Want to Have to Do This
But here we are, I guess. I joined the dark side of short form video.
Whether we love it or hate it, short form video is here to stay. From the now-defunct Vine to the currently thriving cesspools of groupthink that are Instagram reels, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts and TikTok, shortform video is a massive opportunity for content creators.
The big name social networks know this and see the potential in short form content. That’s why Facebook, Instagram and YouTube copied TikTok and started allowing the upload of vertical, short form content that’s meant to be recorded and viewed on a smartphone.
So… I guess I’m on TikTok now? I didn’t want to do it, but I finally joined.
Hesitant to go all in on short form
Up to this point, I’ve been reluctant to spend much time on short form content, preferring instead to focus on my writing for Medium and long form videos for YouTube, Odysee and Rumble.
Truly, I’ve had something of a love/hate relationship with short form content. Scrolling through Facebook or Instagram reels or YouTube Shorts can easily consume 5 minutes or 5 hours. They’re addictive. Literally.
But perhaps my biggest reason for not liking short form video is the fact that, as the name implies, it’s short. Depending on the platform, your video needs to be no longer than 90 seconds - and that’s a struggle! I tend to be more verbose than less, and condensing my thoughts down into a 90 second blurb is difficult for me.
That amount of time varies from platform to platform, thankfully.
Still, the idea of creating short, vertical videos has never truly appealed to me. Why would I want to limit myself to that kind of video? At least, that was my thinking.
Why I joined TikTok
While talking with another content creator in my niche, I expressed my dislike for TikTok, and I told him that I had, up to that point, avoided joining the site. But my objection didn’t last long, I suppose, as he rightly pointed out that TikTok represents a huge portion of the short form content market and that to ignore it would be to ignore a large potential audience.
As much as I didn’t want to hear it, he was right. Whether I love it or hate it, TikTok is huge, and it’s a major player in the video space right now. And as much as I preach the necessity of being on multiple platforms and not being locked in to any one in particular - not putting your eggs in one basket, so to speak - it’s ironic that I’ve been hesitant to try out the platform.
So, despite my former misgivings I joined the site to see what the fuss has been all about, and I was immediately blown away.
Initial impressions of the site
I would, of course, be lying to say that I don’t still have some concerns about TikTok - especially its privacy stances. But it’s hard to disagree with results. As a test, I uploaded a single short to the site to see how it would perform. In less than 24 hours, the number of views on it blew me away. Amazingly, it was doing better there than on Instagram and Facebook. So I uploaded another, and it did well too.
Now, I’m not talking success on the level of someone will millions of followers or anything - or someone getting tens of thousands of views per video. But for me, the numbers were impressive and encouraging.
And so, I’ve uploaded a few more videos to see how they do.
Slowly but surely, my content is racking up views. My follower count is still, expectedly, low. But I’ll be interested to see how - or if - that changes as I start creating more content there. I have some video series ideas and some topics to test out. So I’ll be sure to report back and let you know how it goes.
But right now, I’m optimistic. As much as I hate to like TikTok, I think I kinda do.
Gross.