Videos are the top-performing digital content found on social media, and they command more engagement than any other social posting option. However, creating videos meant for social media comes with tons of considerations. How do you ensure the chosen audience watches the full video you took so much time to prepare? How do you capture the attention of your viewers within the first few seconds of the video? What platforms will the videos be posted on, and most importantly, how long is the video?
One of the most crucial factors in creating compelling social media videos is to build ads that catch the viewers’ attention and motivate them to watch the entire video. With so many different types of videos to make on social media, it is important to pick what best suits your content because the type of content to be created can potentially affect the length of the video.
Let us dive in and learn more about how long social media videos should be.
1. Twitter Video Length
Optimal Video Length: 43-45 seconds.
Creating shorter videos on Twitter and driving the message home makes sense since the platform commends brevity. Twitter’s internal data suggest that its users engage ten times more with tweets that contain videos instead of text tweets; hence keeping the videos as short as possible is key.
Twitter loves to reference its number limits, hence the need to create relevant short, and compelling videos that are enough to grab and maintain the user’s attention.
2. Facebook Video Length
Maximum Video Length: 240 minutes
Optimal Video Length: 15 seconds to 3+ minutes
Videos form a huge part of the Facebook ad network and platform, and just because Facebook allows for the video max to that long does not mean there should not be a limit when it comes to time. Before you fire up the video Facebook video editor, first consider the type of videos you intend to make. Videos designed for business purposes and quick conversion are supposed to be kept less than a minute long and under 20 seconds for the Facebook stories.
The videos that command a lot of attention on Facebook are about a minute long because users like to scroll by. To get them hooked, ensure you keep the introduction of the video interesting and captivating.
3. YouTube
Under 3 Minutes or Over 10 Minutes
Compared to other social media platforms, YouTube was specifically designed for videos with no written content to back up what is being viewed. For this reason, there has been a wild variation in the length of videos to be posted on YouTube, depending on the topic that is being discussed. For some videos, 2 minutes can be the best time, while for others, 30 Minutes or so can be good if it’s worth your audience’s time. Verifies YouTube Accounts can have clips as long as 12 hours or longer, provided it is compressed below 128GB.
YouTube is more or less like a digital library where you can have a repository of video content organized in different playlists depending on the topics involved. The more you add videos on YouTube, the higher your chances of accumulating an impressive catalog of visual assets that will be helpful and engaging to the audience you badly intend to reach.
4. Instagram
• Maximum Video Length
IG Story: 15 seconds
Grid Video: 60 seconds
IGTV: 10 Minutes
• Optimal Video Length
IG Story: 1-7 slides
Grid video: 60 seconds or less
IGTV: 2 to 5 Minutes
Instagram has always advocated for a shorter attention plan. This is because when it released the ability to share videos at first, the maximum length could only go up to one minute. Instagram is a visual platform, and users like to scroll by faster because there is much engaging content. For this reason, it is best to keep the videos short. The perennially popular videos on Instagram are back-and-forth and looming time-lapse videos.
You might want to incorporate plenty of relevant hashtags in your videos to facilitate easier discovery. When you get the opportunity to post longer content on IGTV, utilize the time and get your audience further down into the funnel with exciting content.
5. TikTok
The maximum video length for TikTok videos was expanded in2021. Videos that were once limited to 60 Minutes can now fall between 5 seconds to 3 Minutes long. The videos that tend to perform best are usually 9 to 15 seconds long. TikTok’s best practices suggest that users frequently post their content to gain followers. Ninety percent of TikTok users use the app daily; hence there is the possibility of accumulating a considerable number of views.
The peak times for engagement on TikTok occur at various times; hence it is difficult to know the best time to post for your videos to attract attention.
6. Pinterest
• Maximum Video Length: 15 seconds
• Optimal Video Length: 6-15 seconds
Pinterest is a pin-based social medial platform that is a hotspot for engaging and creative short-form video content. Pinterest is raising steam and changing to be a business powerhouse because it constantly adds new and exciting features that keep the pinners hooked. One of the features is the relatively new video feature. The two main types of videos on Pinterest are Pinterest Stories and Video Pins. While the maximum runtime for Pinterest Stories is 60 seconds, Video Pins can range between 4 seconds to 15 seconds.
For best results on your Pinterest videos, a run time between 6 seconds and 15 seconds is better. Choose a stunning profile, add some text and place your branding front and center and you are good to go.
7. LinkedIn
• Maximum Video Length
Native Video: 10 minutes
Video ads: 30 minutes
• Optimal Video Length: 30 seconds or less
LinkedIn is a popular site for all video types. It suggests that videos made for brand awareness should be under 30 seconds because videos of this length have, with time, reported a 200% lift in the completion rates. The longer videos also have as many clicks as the shorter videos.
This is an excellent platform for B2B marketers so long as the posting times align with the office hours.
Final Thoughts
The average social media user has a shorter attention span, but this should not hinder your efforts to engage them with online videos. The secret to ensuring your videos receive a good engagement includes:
• Making your videos to boost the completion rate
• Creating captivating and interesting content that will leave the internet users gaping for more.
Different social media platforms have different policies and guidelines, so you and your team need to develop something that will be ideal across various platforms.
