Are YouTube Shorts the next TikTok?

At the very end of 2021, TikTok overtook Google as the most popular site of the year. Yes, that’s right, overtook G o o g l e dot com. Tough to wrap your head around huh? But for a while now, and ever since YouTube Shorts - YouTube’s short-form equivalent to TikTok - came on the scene, there’s been a lot of debate around what to do with it. Is it a worthy competitor to invest time in? Or will it fizzle and deflate like a Google+ balloon? We reserve the right to change our minds later, but right now, we’re saying it’s worth investing in. Let us show you why. 

The first time YouTube Shorts hit our radar [as opposed to regular ole YouTube] was during a conversation in early 2021 with Cassie Petrey. She’s co-founder of Crowd Surf and a digital strategy guru when it comes to music [no joke she works with Guns N Roses, Backstreet Boys, Fifth Harmony, and THEE Britney Spears]. We were discussing how up and coming musicians get discovered on social media, and what exactly record labels are looking for when it comes to digital content.

Her advice was specific and direct [and if you happen to be an aspiring singer / songwriter / performer, uh take note]. She said that if you want to get the attention of record labels, post short-form videos of yourself singing - your own music and covers - experiment with song lyrics in-progress, and post across TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Use the same video, but tweak the language so that it's different on each platform. Also post a lot, like multiple times a day. Her examples to model after were Camylio on TikTok and Jessie Murph on Instagram, both of whom were “discovered” via social media.

Since then, YouTube Shorts has hit the “might as well” post phase for many M.T. Deco clients across industries [think individuals in entertainment, music, news, finance, CSR, etc.]. The mentality is that if a client produces a great TikTok, the best of the short-form video platforms tbh, we might as well get as much out of it as we can and post to Reels and YouTube Shorts. Anecdotally it’s also been fun to see which videos tank and which ones take off on TikTok versus YouTube Shorts. Most of the time they are totally different, which is refreshing to know that the platforms aren’t an exact copy-paste of the other.

Also, some users - largely TikTok creators - are seeing “insane” subscriber growth on YouTube by using shorts. One unique standout is Anthony Baroud, a dental student in Chicago. His Dental Digest channel hit 4.5 million subscribers in one year! Another set of success stories is from The Network Effect Agency, who instructed some of their TikTok clients to go “all in” on Shorts and yielded views in the millions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It’s not all rosy, unfortunately. At the moment, roughly 6 months from when the aforementioned Hollywood Reporter piece ran, the best way to describe the YouTube Shorts experience is disorganized. It still feels very beta. In order to post one, users tag it with the hashtag #shorts and they get thrown into the mass pile of Shorts content. Videos are tough to find, and so are niches and subcultures. While the mobile viewing works within the YouTube app, the desktop viewing is not ideal since Shorts populate as vertical videos within YouTube’s horizontal player. Also, they have a 60 second length limitation which we don’t love. [Hey, YouTube, can you hear us?!] This is of course in comparison to TikTok which has a super high-quality consumer experience – the organization, discoverability and algorithm behind the For You Page is hard to compete with. 

But when we look at Shorts within the macro YouTube, it is still hands down the gold standard for monetizing digital content. Even though YouTube Shorts are only a year and a half old - there is a $100 million fund to incentivize creators. The main platform is still light years ahead of other platforms for making money and has a mastery of longform content… it’s this new age of short form content everyone is trying to figure out. Which is why we aren’t writing them off and we are going to continue encouraging clients to post on there - as well as all of you - and especially if you’re publishing on TikTok and Reels. It’s a couple extra steps that could totally pay off. 

As for our clientele, we are starting to shift from the “might as well” phase to the more PRO-active phase of leading with strategy on YouTube Shorts. At a minimum, the content can easily publish cross-platform. But there’s also the potential to build subscribers for a full-fledged YouTube channel. We are very much on board. Cheering you on YouTube, let’s get this thing right.