Study: 66% find short-form content to be the most engaging format

Consumers today watch more videos and the demand for short-form content has rapidly increased, with 66% finding the type of content to be the most engaging.

This was according to a report done by Munch, an AI-powered automation platform for social media.

For marketers, this shift has brought short-form videos to the forefront of content creation due to its ability to capture an audience's attention and drive engagement. 

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According to the report, video content is no longer an option, but a necessity for business and brands aiming for success, with 42% of businesses preferring Instagram and 26% preferring Facebook to post such videos. TikTok does not rank among the top three platform choices for marketers. 

"TikTok’s absence from the top three business platforms suggests significant challenges in adopting the platform for original content and its relatively lower perceived value in the realm of small business marketing," it said.

Out of the businesses using short-form content in their marketing strategies, only 8% are large enterprises. The majority comprises of small businesses (70%) and medium-sized businesses (22%). 

This demonstrates how video marketing has become an integral tool for businesses in reaching and engaging diverse audiences, said the report. 

On the other hand, content creators show a preference for YouTube (43%) and Instagram (30%). Only 11% of creators are using TikTok to share content. 

Despite the growing popularity of short-form videos, Munch found that many still struggle to make viral clips and often rely on time-consuming solutions to create short-form video. 

Munch’s report found that the key to successful clips lies in a pacing of 150 words per minute and featuring two to three speakers to ensure a variety of perspectives and discourse.

In addition, the optimal length for maximizing viewer engagement while remaining concise is around 40 seconds.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that organisations that do not have a clear grasp on how to leverage short-form content to retain a strong online presence will fall behind,” said Oren Kandel, CEO and co-founder of Munch.

“We’re seeing more and more technological solutions available helping companies of all sizes create short-form content in an accessible, timely manner. Harnessing such technology is crucial for marketers to create short-form clips to engage with their audience, drive conversations, and build lasting brand awareness.”

Aside from businesses and content creators, Instagram has also come up to be the most popular social media app among online users in 2023.

In fact, almost 16% of social media users named Instagram as their number-one social media platform, 2% more than Facebook, and double the share of TikTok.

According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, the photo and video-sharing social networking app is expected to hit 1.3 billion users in 2023, 86 million more than a year ago. It also noted that by 2017, this figure is expected to grow by another 17% and hit 1.56 billion worldwide.

While this is still less than Facebook and TikTok's user count, Instagram still comes out on top when it comes to popularity among users. 

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