Twitter Short Form

Author

Alex Garcia
August 29, 2023

Alex, here. I’m on a short-form video kick. One short-form video can be repurposed on four different platforms with minor changes. And all have the potential to go viral. So, I’m publishing a short-form video on Instagram every day for the next 30 days. It’s time I take all my learnings from working with brands on their short-form content and apply them to myself.

Would love it if you followed the journey.

Goal follower count: 20,000 followers by 9/28 Current follower count: 4831

And this case study will also cover why I’m bullish on creating short-form content for Twitter. There’s proof.

But first thanks to our partner Insense.

Some of our partners add five to six figures in revenue after running an advertising campaign in Marketing Examined. Want to work with us to scale? Fill out this quick Google Form.

The worst part about UGC and influencer campaigns? Sourcing. Briefing. Management.

So, Insense removes the bottleneck by:

  • Creating a list of creators to collab with

  • Managing and centralizing all communication

  • Delivering all your UGC content

They’ve helped 1400+ brands and agencies grow by scaling their content in three ways:

  1. Paid Content - UGC content for Meta & TikTok

  2. Organic Content - Collab with creators who share your product on their page

  3. Creator Ads - Run whitelisted ads on creator’s social handles

And if you book a demo between now and September 15th, they’ll give you a free month of post-production work.

That means taking a UGC video and adding all the bells and whistles that converts it into a killer ad.

You can book a 15-minute demo here.

🔍 Video Is The Best Content Type For Twitter…Really.

I think the most valuable type of content you can create on X (Twitter) right now is video.

Both short-form and long-form video.

Here’s why:

  1. At the end of 2022, Elon Musk talked about resurrecting Vine and asked Mr. Beast how they could compete with TikTok.

  2. In a meeting with X employees, Elon discussed transforming X into a YouTube competitor.

  3. Twitter will pay creators 10% more than YouTube will.

  4. Twitter is encouraging creators to post their entire videos and podcasts on Twitter because they’ll get pushed.

The Short Form Debate

Miss Excel has:

  • 851,000 followers on IG.

  • 929k followers on TikTok.

  • 55.4k followers on X.

Two data points we’re going to look at here:

1. Platform vs. Platform Engagement

Miss Excel posted this video across TikTok, Instagram, and X.

And it performed better on X, despite her audience being 15x bigger on both Instagram and TikTok.

Example:

2. Account Growth

Twitter’s algo in July. According to NFT God, “13,000+ lines of changed code.”

One of the learnings, Twitter is pushing short-form video. And it’s noticeable.

From May to mid-July, Miss Excel re-shared her Excel videos on Twitter and the engagement was inconsistent.

One video would get 76 likes. Another 100 likes. And the occasional video would go viral.

Fast forward to the algorithm change, and Miss Excel posted a short form clip every day from August 9th to today.

Every single video ranges from 300 likes to 2,400+ likes.

Example:

No changes to the content. No changes to the quality. Always stellar content. Only changes to the algorithm.

And her growth is proof of it:

The Long-Form Proof

On May 18th, Elon announced that you can now publish 2-hour videos on X.

And he continues to encourage creators to publish full podcast episodes and YouTube videos straight on the platform.

So, what’s the proof?

1. Theo Von

The comedian Theo Von published a podcast onto Youtube. In less than ~24 hours it was taken off the platform.

TheoVon then posted the full episode on Twitter.

Here are the results:

  • 80,300,000 impressions

  • 58,700 likes

  • 47,000+ followers added

2. All In Podcast

The All-In Podcast decided to post the entire podcast onto X. And again, it took off.

Here are the results:

  • 27,200,000 impressions

  • 3,929 likes

  • 4000+ followers

One of the hardest aspects of growing a podcast is awareness.

Why?

Because podcast platforms don’t distribute your content. X’s push to drive long-form content is your opportunity to grow your podcast.

But like anything good, it’s time-sensitive.

Wrapping It Up

  • Set a base KPI for text-based Tweets to test content before converting it into short-form video

  • Short-form video and long-form videos will get punished heavily on Twitter to compete with Youtube

  • This article will help you develop your short-form content strategy

  • This article will help you win on Twitter after the new algo changes

📚 This Week’s Rabbit Hole Reads & Resources

  • Your home office Zoom setup needs a makeover. Here’s a simple short-form series that’ll teach how to make drastic improvements with subtle changes

  • 7 Content marketing examples that drive 100k visitors to 5M+ visitors each month - and why they work.

  • The best ideas don’t play it safe. That’s why they spread like wildfire. And Seth Godin is going to teach how to get them to spread.

  • Airbnb ditched all their performance marketing. And they replaced it with big, bold brand campaigns. Here’s why.

  • The 7 changes the supplement brand Obvi made to their ad account to pursue more profit.

  • If Nike opened a hotel you could imagine what it’d be like. That’s the difference between a brand and a logo. Here’s why it matters.

Want to get a guaranteed 200+ people in front of your product, tool, or content then you can purchase a rabbit hole placement here.

As always, I appreciate you reading. Btw - we’ve got a giveaway coming soon. And I swear I’m not giving away a coffee mug or some ish. It’ll be badass. It’ll be a random drop. So, make sure to check each newsletter over the next few weeks.

Alex G

Here’s how else we can help you:

  • Apply to partner with Marketing Examined by filling out this Google Form

  • Book a 1:1 call to re-create your landing pages and double your conversion rate