Have you heard of YouTube Shorts? Wondering how to use shorts on YouTube for business?

In this article, you’ll discover what YouTube shorts are and how marketers can take advantage of this new content type on YouTube.

How to Create a YouTube Short

Anyone can post a short right from the YouTube app on both Android and iOS. The video needs to be under a minute and vertically oriented, and you upload it as you would any other video.

There isn’t an editor available yet for Shorts but there’s one currently in beta. If you want, you could create a short with an external editor and upload the finished video to your YouTube channel. As with any video, you have access to YouTube’s music library but the selection isn’t as extensive as what you’d find on TikTok or Instagram.

As of now, there’s no way to designate a video as a short when you post it. YouTube is basically just looking for those videos that meet the criteria of a short-form video. To increase the probability of your video showing up in the short shelves, make sure you use the #shorts hashtag in the title and description.

If your video gets picked up in Shorts, you’ll see a different icon than just a Play button in YouTube Analytics.

While YouTube is working this feature into the platform, sometimes a video you want to be a short won’t show up as a short and you’ll get normal video traffic to it. In this case, you’ll still get views from the YouTube home page, subscription feed, and recommendations. But it won’t be near the volume of views you’d be getting if it showed up in Shorts because that’s where YouTube is really amping up those videos.

While YouTube shorts can be up to 1 minute long, the ideal length depends on the audience you’re going after. For instance, Gen Xers will typically stick on a 1-minute video even if it’s dry. For Gen Z, though, the video needs to get right to it. If it’s 15 seconds, you need to get to the point within the 15 seconds. If it’s 1 minute, you better justify that minute.

If your short is 35 seconds or longer, you have the ability to add an end screen element. You’ll have the same options you’d get with any YouTube video. When viewers click on an end screen element, it takes them out of the short shelf and puts them into the YouTube ecosystem.

Note that you can embed a short-form YouTube video on your website only if it’s not in the short shelf. So if it’s not designated a short, you’ll have all of the options you’d normally have.

Business Use Cases for YouTube Shorts

There are already some creative ways that creators and marketers are using YouTube Shorts.

Some creators will integrate it completely into their channels. An attorney who goes by Legal Eagle creates YouTube videos that help make the law understandable to the average person. He’s using shorts to give his input on legal issues in the news. These conversations wouldn’t warrant a 15-minute discussion so short-form video is the perfect vehicle.

Other creators, such as Mr. Beast, have created separate channels for shorts. With Mr. Beast’s shorts, he’s been experimenting with footage that never saw the light of day and blending it with some TikToks that have been successful. These might be elements that would further explain a storyline in a main video that people would then want to watch.

For instance, the World’s Greatest Samurai is a short with 71 million video views where he quickly opens and closes a samurai sword and the “arm” of someone in the background falls off. It’s fun, on-brand, and people have liked and responded to it.

Based on the nature of the viewing behavior for short-form video on YouTube, content that has performed really well for you on TikTok could work as shorts. However, some of those videos actually contain music that you wouldn’t be able to use on YouTube. That’s the struggle that you have with using that content, but that’s the type of ecosystem you’re in.

When you’re deciding whether to post shorts on your existing channel or create a new channel just for shorts, the key point to consider is whether posting shorts will disrupt your audience. Your subscribers have an expectation of what content they’re going to see on your channel and they may not like it if you do something different. If they’ve subscribed to and watched hours and hours of your content, and then you put out content that’s totally off-brand, that could be a problem.

It’s a case-by-case situation, but 9 times out of 10, publishing shorts on your channel is going to disrupt viewing patterns.

Keep in mind that shorts don’t necessarily have to be entertaining to be successful. However, they do need to fulfill a promise. If you’re a fan of chess and you watch a short about how to sacrifice your queen to win at chess, the content should fulfill that promise. That’s the key to a successful short.