If you had told us that vertical video would become a dominant medium in 2022, we would have called you crazy. Whether you like it, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are here to stay. Now the real question is where should you focus your efforts as a brand?
Create once post everywhere
In 2022, all three video platforms are trying to become the de facto leader in vertical video content. This competition means you'll get great organic reach as you post more, and their algorithms learn where to push your content.
Right now, you don't need to focus on picking a platform but focus on creating quality content. It could just be getting comfortable with creating and posting video content, figuring out the type of content you like to post, and refining that content. If you're lucky, it could just mean you work creating social video content into your current content schedule and maybe even move out something else to make room for it.
The benefit of this is you can then post that one piece of content on YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok then reap the benefits of getting followers in all three places. You might even begin to see a pattern of which platform and audience resonate with you the most and focus your content creation with their feedback or performance in mind.
If there is one thing we can share with you is not to share a video you made on one platform to another. Although it feels like the most straightforward method, the algorithm will begin to know the video was created elsewhere and limit the reach for natively posted content if it hasn't already.
Focusing on a platform
As mentioned, we still think it may be too early to focus on posting to one platform. But you can try to leverage any growth you get and push your new followers to your desired platform or marketing goal.
This could be leveraging your growth on TikTok to push people to your YouTube channel because you want that platform to be your central content hub. Perhaps you could link to a newsletter you run to increase subscribers and, eventually, customers.
The key is to focus on your end business goal and leverage the platform to grow that goal.