Prompt Playbook: Getting Started with Short Form Video PART 1
📱 Getting Started with Short Form Video using AI | Playbook
This week we’re going to cover short form video and how it’ll add rocket fuel to your business.
Are you going to be learning Tiktok dances before the week is up?
Nah I wouldn’t do that to you!
Instead I’m going to show you how to leverage short form video for entrepreneurial purposes, regardless of your niche.
We’ll cover
Part 1: Small but deadly. Why short form content works.
Part 2: Format focus. What will we make videos about?
Part 3: Content channels. How to get inspired for limitless ideas.
Part 4: Rapid recording. How to create shorts easily and in volume.
Part 5: Repurposing for fun and profit. Hitting multiple channels using short form.
Let’s get started:
Small but deadly
Short form video is any video under 2 minutes. Often much shorter.
In fact, in the world of short form video: the shorter the better.
Short form video is (right now) one of the most powerful tools you can have in your marketing arsenal.
Right now a whole bunch of you are screwing your face and saying eww no thanks - I’m not doing that Tiktok nonsense.
My goal in this Part is to help you get over this! We shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater and dismiss the whole of short form video just because you don’t like platforms like Tiktok.
Because the reality is that short form video kills it on ALL platforms.
So much so that platforms have adapted their whole modus operandi to work with short form
Instagram used to be photos only. Now short form Reels and Videos rule the roost.
YouTube is for long videos right? Nope - Youtube Shorts are massive. There’s even a Shorts tab right in the app.
Short video video is even tearing up LinkedIn at the moment. Lara Acosta’s work is a brilliant example of this.
And, as of last week, we heard that X/Twitter is introducing a focused video tab
Twitter - the preeminent text based platform - is looking at video.
So: it’s not just Tiktok!
Why are all these platforms so interested in short form video?
Because it holds attention.
Platforms make money through advertising. Advertisers pay for attention. Attention is generated and held by short form video.
That’s the basic core of the economics at play here.
And because of this the platforms incentivise short form video. They’ll make changes to their algorithm or even their whole interface to make sure people are creating and watching short form video.
If you want to generate attention for your brand and business then we can piggy back here.
The platforms want this format. And will reward us for it by sending views and engagement our way.
Think of it like swimming down a river with the current rather than against it.
Not in my backyard
One objection people will throw up is that short form video doesn’t work in their particular niche.
I can guarantee it does. And if no-one is doing it yet then you’re about to do some serious damage by being first.
Short form video lets you get on camera and authentically deliver solid gold value in a very concise package.
“Yes but my niche is too complex!” I hear you say.
Then you need to do a better job explaining it!
If you can take a complex subject or news item and deliver your POV and expert knowledge bombs in 15 seconds then you are flexing in a major way.
Here’s an example from Tiktok in the AI sphere
Rachel Woods delivers the latest AI news and updates in short (<1 min) videos.
The subjects aren’t simple - for example some of her recent videos are on
an AI ethics litmus test
a warning about prompt injections
using AI to alleviate work anxiety
Complex topics but delivered in a short easy to digest package - that’s real expertise.
It’s also a valuable skill that short form video will train us on.
When we have 15-30 seconds to make a point suddenly our language becomes focused, our speech becomes precise. Extraneous fluff has no space here!
Auditing your niche
Before we jump into the rest of the week and start writing and producing short form video let’s get the lay of the land.
We want to see who is already doing short form video and see what is working for them.
We’ll use this to play catch up - we can learn from what they do. If they have certain topics and formats that work well for them then guess what - they will probably work well for us too!
Let’s use this research prompt
Act as a research assistant
My niche is [business niche]
Collect a list of influencers who talk about my niche using short form video. Find existing lists online.
Focus on experts who report on updates and news. Not industry leaders / company owners.
For each of these platforms collect 5 influencers:
Tiktok
LinkedIn
Twitter
Instagram (Reels)
Facebook
Youtube (Shorts)
Provide their name, quick summary and a link to their profileThis will give you a basic audit of who is active in your space.
Important here is the line “Find existing lists online.” This will find webpages that have already catalogued content creators in your industry.
The more specific your business niche parameter here the better your results will be. For example if I put just “entrepreneurship” I get wide wide results like Richard Branson and Elon Musk.
Instead we want to find people whose primary work is creating content, informing and educating online. Not CEOs.
Go ahead and note down creators whose content you think is valuable and well delivered. We’ll be using these moving forward as reference points.
Premium Prompt - Manual override
The above ChatGPT prompt will give you a basic starting point for your research.
However we really need to get live data from the actual social media platforms themselves for a full audit.
This requires more work but will give much better results that relying on ChatGPT solely (sorry ChatGPT!).
Use the prompt above to get started but then use tools within the social media platform to find more.
How you do this exactly depends on the platform so here’s a quick summary of the most valuable platforms:
X/Twitter: Lists are you friend here. Find a handful of content creators using the basic method above (or just your knowledge) and then click the “…” in their profile to find their Lists. Content creators will often have lists of, you guessed it, other content creators. These are goldmines. Mine them.
Tiktok: start with one target account and see who they follow. In their profile tap their Following and you’ll get a list of everyone they think it’s worth following - chances are they will be following a lot of these people to learn from their content. Review the accounts and follow the valuable looking ones.
LinkedIn: hashtags are still useful on LinkedIn so let’s take advantage of that. Find a content creator using the method above on then on their profile look for the text “talks about #entrepreneurship”. There will be a list of topics. Plug one topic into the search bar and then you can filter to “People who talk about #entrepreneurship” or whatever your target hashtag is. That helps you quickly locate other creators in the particular space.
Generally though the name of the game here is just to be active on these platforms. Follow and interact with people who create solid short form video content and the platforms will start to show you more and more.
Every time you see something you like make sure to follow the person and potentially make note of their name so remember to come back to their content for the next steps of this process.
Pulling it together
Here’s a reminder of what we’re covering this week
Part 1: Small but deadly. Why short form content works.
Part 2: Format focus. What will we make videos about?
Part 3: Content channels. How to get inspired for limitless ideas.
Part 4: Rapid recording. How to create shorts easily and in volume.
Part 5: Repurposing for fun and profit. Hitting multiple channels using short form.
Keep prompting,
Kyle