Part 4: Video Content Strategy - Creating Long and Short-Form Educational Videos

In this Part we'll adapt our core message into video. We'll also talk about multimedia and starting to combine text and video.

Let's get started:

✍️ Summary Video Tutorials

• long form video

• combining long form with written

• short form video

• combining short form with written Video gives us an extra edge when it comes to building trust via education. It's not just the content that'll show your expertise - it's your delivery and presentation too.

  Video is also (generally) the preferred format that most people like to consume educational content in.

  We'll look at how to convert our core message into different video formats and then combine everything (written and video) into multimedia posts.

Long form video

Long form video lives primarily on YouTube. Other platforms allow you to upload it (and in fact encourage it) but YouTube remains the platform where audiences actually want to watch it. Just because TikTok wants videos up to 60 minutes doesn't necessarily mean their users do!

We can make scripts from our core message using AI. One variable here is how much detail you want in the script.

Some people will want every line written out. For instance if you are happy to memorise a script (more power to you!) or are using a teleprompter. Others will be happy to ad-lib and talk on the fly. These people literally only need a short list of bulleted talking points and they are good to go.

Most of us are somewhere in-between.

Generally as you shoot more video you'll transition from needing line by line to being able to talk off the top of your dome. This happened to me - the more I did the less scripting I needed. It'll happen to you too.

To account for variations in speaking comfort we'll use a prompt with a variable.

Use this variable: If 100 level of detail is a line by line script and 1 level of detail is simple bullet points of only the main points prepare a script with a level of detail = [1-100]
Do NOT include script or stage directions or b-roll suggestions. Do not provide speakers. Provide only the wording.

Here is an example of our previous core message with detail set to 1:

And with detail set to 100:

Use whatever level of detail you need to to get the job done. And then over time as you become more comfortable with on-camera delivery decrease the detail level. This allow you to flex the prompt as required.

Combining long form video with text

Once you have your video uploaded to YouTube I recommend also embedding it in your blog.

Specifically:

• use the long form blog article from the last Part as the text of the blog
• and then embed the YouTube vid at the top of the article for those who prefer to watch This gives you a double whammy of SEO - both Google search and YouTube (also owned by Google). Second, in the description of your YouTube video link to the blog article. Then the circle is complete.

Short form video

Short form video is the dominant online format - bar none. It's obviously the most powerful on native platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels but it's also taking over on YouTube via Shorts.

It's the most accessible format because of its length and (let's be honest) because people don't like reading!

Shooting short form video is very similar to long form with the obvious exception of it being...shorter.

Because of this we'll adapt the prompt to brevity.

Also, the hook is even more important for short form. In general, people will be shown your video on their feed rather than actively seek it out. Which means you need to absolutely nail the first second. Here's an adapted prompt:

Use this variable: If 100 level of detail is a line by line script and 1 level of detail is simple bullet points of only the main points prepare a script with a level of detail = [1-100]
Do NOT include script or stage directions or b-roll suggestions. Do not provide speakers. Provide only the wording. 
Provide 5 hook alternatives

The prompt will generate a much more concise script for you, again allowing you to adjust for detail.

It will

also generate multiple hooks:

My advice when starting out - shoot all five hooks and try the video with each and every hook. Space them out if you worry about too many duplicates. In general though your followers won't be seeing everything you post - especially early days.

Therefore use this as a chance to experiment - test hooks, see which holds audiences best and learn from this. It'll tell you the type of hooks your audience responds to.

Combining short form video with text

We can also go multi-format with short form video.

First of all insert your short form video into your Twitter threads as one of the individual posts, generally the first one (but experiment with where it sits).

Also insert the short form video into LinkedIn articles and any other places on social media you've used your long form text.

Second, for the caption of your short form video use the long form article on platforms that allow long captions. This works great for on-platform SEO. And some people (especially on Instagram) will actually read the article right there in your feed.

We've talked briefly in this Part about ways to combine video and text. In the next Part we'll talk about taking this to the next level where we can start to compile all of this material into structured series and even courses.