Social video guide

Best practices for short-form video

Use these principles before filming or editing so videos are clearer, easier to watch, and easier for campus teams to repeat.

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Social Video Hub |SFV Best Practices

Attention spans are shrinking and social platforms are evolving, short-form video has emerged as a powerful way to capture and communicate impactful messages. These bite-sized videos offer unique opportunities to connect with your guests, boost engagement, and drive revenue. However, creating effective short-form video content goes beyond just keeping it brief; it requires a careful blend of storytelling, visual appeal, and clear calls-to-action.

Check out a few best practices for crafting short-form videos that not only grab attention but leave a lasting impression.

Include audio

You can use any kind of audio, but the more relevant, the better. Unlike other social videos that are watched mostly without sound, you should make music and sounds an essential part of your short-form video storytelling.

Go full-screen

Get the most out of TikTok’s vertical full-screen experience and capture 100% of that screen space by shooting in 9:16. When uploading your creative to TikTok, make sure to keep the majority of your messaging and imagery visible within the TikTok safe zones (areas that won’t be cropped or covered up) but do not manipulate text or images to only fit within the boundary.

Shoot high resolution video

Your resolution shouldn’t be less than 720p, but you don’t want videos that look too produced. Try to strike a balance between authentic-looking content that can comfortably show up between user-generated videos and a polished advertising look that is on brand.

Keep testing

Start testing new creative and refreshing your bottom performers every two to three weeks. You can test different creators, sound bytes, styles of production, and more.

What makes a good video?

The trick is to lean into content that feels authentic and native to the platform.

The TikTok community is all about connection, so great TikTok creative requires a deep understanding of your audience and shouldn’t be overly produced or polished. Brands that aren’t leaning into this stick out like a sore thumb in a sea of user generated content and can leave a bad impression.

The brands on TikTok finding the most success are building their organic presence by capitalizing on what makes the platform so unique: sound, storytelling format, subcultures/trends, and creators.

Keep it short

Our people drive our brand.

Just because you can post a 10-minute video doesn’t mean you should.

Your goal should be to retain viewers. Cut any non-relevant info and try to keep your video as short as possible to get your point across. The best-performing videos are often well under 60 seconds.

Tell a short story. TikTok recommends a length of 21-24 seconds, but the first 3-10 seconds are the most crucial. To keep your video concise, you can use video captions to help add context to the story in your video.

Make a strong intro

Our people drive our brand.

Get to the point. You only have a few seconds to hook a viewer, so be sure to start your videos with strong visuals or audio to get their attention.

Description and hashtags

Reveal, Recap, Repeat.

Make your description and hashtags relevant and specific to what your video is about to ensure it appears at the top of the results when a user is searching for information.

Avoid vague hashtags and keep it hyper-local to your campus, event, or trend.

Do this, not that.

Do this: Stay on trend.

Don't do this: Be late to a trend.

Stay up-to-date on trends and don’t wait to jump on a trend that may work for your campus. Trends come and go quickly, so if you wait until next week, the trend may already be stale.

Do this: Create exciting content that also informs.

Don't do this: Bore your viewers with too much information.

Try keeping your videos focused on one thing at a time. Instead of trying to fit in all of the benefits of a meal plan in one video, try making several videos that each focus on one or two benefits at a time.

Do this: Post consistently.

Don't do this: Post too few or too many videos at once.

Try to make posts at regular intervals. Plan ahead for school breaks. Create and schedule evergreen content now so that you can stay relevant when school is not in session. Going dormant over summer break may put you at a disadvantage with engagement when starting back up in the fall.