The era of short-form video content is well already here and likely here to stay. Whether your favorite way to view short clips of video media is via the TikTok app, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or somewhere else online or on your phone, short-form video content is having a moment. Moving images have been with us for a while. Gifs used to be the primary way to see a clip of something online, then videos limited to 6-15 seconds with Vine and Instagram, and now Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts are the name of the short-form game. If you aren’t already making this kind of content to market yourself or your business, you should be. That doesn’t mean you have to go all in and partake in trends, or begin dancing for strangers on TikTok. A simple way to start could simply to repurpose old video content that you already have, cutting it down to a bite-sized form.

If you already have video content that is relevant to yourself or your business, that you’ve already published, you can cut those pieces of video down to short-form bites of content that can be published as Reels, Shorts, or TikToks. This means that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and you can get a head start on posting what is currently the most algorithmically favorable media to post.

Getting too in your head about “what is a TikTok?,” or “ how can I make a Reel?,” can be limiting. Instead, by figuring out the mechanics of these tools by using the video you already have will give you a leg up on what you should already be doing to promote yourself or your business.

Simply do this by taking a piece of video content that you already have, watch it in its entirety, then figure out the most meaningful or impactful 10-20 seconds. Use video editing software, or just your phone’s camera roll editor, and clip out the best parts. Once you have your clips, all you have to do is upload those clips as Reels, Shorts or TikToks.

After posting a few of these repurposed videos, watch your engagement metrics to see what your audience (or new audience) responds to the most. In a new format, you may find that your audience reacts differently to different things, especially in a “best of” or summary format.

As reported by Deadline, “a little more than 15% of a typical Instagram user’s feed is recommended by artificial intelligence from people, groups or accounts than the user does not follow, Zuckerberg estimates, much of it video. The company expects that number to ‘more than double’ by the end of 2023. ‘As our AI finds content that people will find interesting,’ the exec said, ‘that increases engagement and the quality of our feeds.’

Engagement with Reels, a short-form video outlet added to both Facebook and Instagram in response to the rise of TikTok, is has risen more than 30% across both platforms in the past quarter. CFO David David Wehner conceded that some of that increased engagement is ‘cannibalistic’ from other parts of the platform like Feed and Stories due to the strategy to promote Reels broadly to all users, though he maintained that viewing of Reels videos is ‘incremental and beneficial to time spent.’”

Posting video will ensure that your accounts keep up with the times on social media, meaning that your content won’t get left behind as these platforms evolve. While it is true that not everyone is a videographer or a video editor by trade, it is true that it’s becoming simpler and simpler to make short-form video almost by the day. Start out by repurposing old video content, posting, and see how your audience reacts. Once you figure out what your audience wants to see more of, then make a few new video posts on those topics here and there. As you get more comfortable with the tools, increase your frequency of posts. Again, none of this is new. Humanity has had moving images since 1878, when a photographer combined several images of a horse galloping to show the illusion of motion. TikTok, Reels and Shorts are no different. Start with what you have, then build from there.