In April 2024, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok, the popular short video social media site. The bill was signed into legislation on April 23 stipulating that unless TikTok is sold to remove Chinese ownership it will no longer be available in the United States. In May, however, NPR reported that TikTok is suing the US ban in court, saying it violates the first amendment rights. This may take a long time to play out in the courts. It would be wise to look for alternatives now if you use TikTok to share video content.
TikTok, Home of the 15-Second Short Video
For those who are unfamiliar with the social media platform, TikTok favors ‘short form’ video content: short, 15-second videos. Users who watch one video find themselves drawn into more and more videos on the same topic as the platforms’ infamous algorithm serves up tailored content. What begins as a quick “let me look at this guy hammering a nail” becomes nonstop videos on DIY projects until users find themselves whiling away hours stuck like glue to the platform’s addictive interface.
TikTok Alternatives
If you have been uncomfortable with TikTok and the concerns aired by our elected officials during the discussions in the House, it may be time to find TikTok alternatives for your short video content. The following TikTok alternatives offer great places to share short videos that still share your marketing content with the right audience.
Instagram Reels
Instagram offers brands the opportunity to share photos and videos. Videos can be any length up to 90 seconds. The platform has a large and loyal base of 2.4 billion users worldwide, meaning it can reach an extraordinary number of people. Videos can also be shared across the other company owned by Meta, Facebook. This enables you to upload one video and achieve outstanding reach. The challenge, however, is that reels can sometimes be difficult to find on the platform, and they don’t have the same stickiness (ability to hold people like the TikTok algorithm) as TikTok. Still, Instagram reels offer one of the best alternatives to TikTok.
YouTube Shorts
YouTube is arguably the most popular video sharing platform in the world, attracting 2.7 billion users to 50 million videos each month. The company launched its Short feature in September 2020 to replace TikTok in India when the country banned the platform. Since then, it has expanded worldwide. Videos should be filmed vertically and may not exceed 60 seconds. They appear on a user’s home screen in a separate section based on YouTube’s recommendations. One of the benefits of using YouTube is its strong search engine features including the ability to tag videos with keywords. YouTube Shorts is another strong platform for short form video.
Snapchat Spotlight Videos
Around the same time YouTube launched Shorts in response to India’s ban of TikTok, Snapchat responded too, launching Snapchat Spotlight. Videos can be uploaded from your phone, but the platform seems to prioritize videos made with their proprietary Snapchat Camera and Creative Tools. If you market to a younger demographic, SnapChat Spotlight videos may be a great way to share short videos.
Is Video Marketing Right for Your Brand?
Many companies benefit from using videos as part of their social media marketing strategy. While you may think that video has to be about consumer products, business-to-business marketers also use video quite effectively to tell their product or brand stories. Additionally, content creators use videos to generate hits and clicks, and can make money from advertising, sponsorships, and affiliates.
From a strictly ads-based marketing strategy, Google’s videos seem to be doing well also and have easy-to-update templates to follow. They ARE video-based content for a brand, but get inserted into the addictive recommendation algorithms that the ‘social’ ads platforms enjoy.
Meta’s Facebook is ramping up to compete with TikTok. They’ve announced already that they will start using their own full screen player and vertical video will be a big part of it.
Instagram also has made some recent changes in how they are incentivising video creators, including making an attempt at protecting the original sources when videos are shared. Creator content can be monetized and is prioritized in the algorithms. It raises the bar on looking for influencer creators who can partner with your brand.
Lastly, AI will be a big part of video creation going forward. We’ll have to see how it plays out, as appropriate guardrails are not established.
If you’d like to explore videos as part of your digital marketing strategy, give Dashboard a call. Our social media strategist can give you a great plan that matches your company to the best platform – the place where your audience likes to get information.