Dan Slee

Social media, PR and digital communications in the public sector from the co-founder of comms2point0

  • Contact

SOCIAL VIDEO: What are the optimum and best lengths for social and live video in 2018?

Posted: April 8, 2018 | Author: Dan Slee | Filed under: communications, Facebook, linkedin, live streaming, live video, marketing, social media, video, YouTube | Tags: 2018 video tips how to best practice, facebook live optimum video lengths, facebook live tips, facebook video links, facedbook optimum video lengths, how long should a linkedin instagram twitter youtube video be, how long should a youtube, instagram optimum video lengths, instagram video links, linkedin optimum video lengths, periscope optimum video length, periscope tips, snapchat optimum video lengths, snapchat tips, twitter optimum video lengths, video best practice, youtube optimum video lengths | Leave a comment

 

video channels.JPG

Back in the olden days video online was so simple… chucked it up onto YouTube and share the link.

Those days have long  gone. The web is a different place and people use different channels in different ways.

On Twitter and Facebook where you scroll through your timeline your attention span is shorter. On YouTube, where you can go looking for content on specific subjects it can be longer.

This is a list of the maximum length for content and also the optimum time based on research:

video lengths 2018

Other questions to ask

Of course, the length of your dependent on a few factors. ‘Is your audience using this channel?’ is a key question.

‘Is the video useful?’ is also a key question. Does it have sub-titles? Music? There’s a few other questions to ask but the optimum video length is a good starting point.

The last time I blogged the optimum a few months back people asked for the source of the research. So this time, here are some links to help you. Not all the channels have an optimum length. Periscope, for example.

Notes and queries on the research

YOUTUBE: The maximum length of 15 minutes can be increased to 12 hours through a straight forward verification step.  Optimum length is much shorter.

FACEBOOK: Facebook maximum length against Facebook’s own suggested lengths for ads. INSTAGRAM: Maximum length was increased from 15 seconds to 60 seconds with research via Newswhip suggesting a much shorter length. TWITTER: Maximum length of 240 seconds   is comfortably within Hubspot’s suggested 45 seconds.

SNAPCHAT: Maximum length is a mere 10 seconds but Hootsuite suggest five seconds is the sweet spot.

PERISCOPE: A maximum length and the sky is the limit but there is no research on what the optimum length of a live broadcast is.  FACEBOOK LIVE: Can run for 240 minutes but 19 minutes is best say Buzzsumo.

LINKEDIN is the new kid on the block with native uploaded video. Five minutes is the most you can upload and there is no clear research on what is optimum. As a platform, I’d guess it falls between the 45 seconds of Twitter as video falls into the timeline. But often people post ‘how to’ videos that run beyond the YouTube max of three minutes.

Other platforms

There’s a number of other ways to present video I’ve not touched upon. VIMEO has fallen behind in recent years but still has fans and you can upload via VIMEO LIVE with a premium account. You can go live via YOUTUBE LIVE but there is little accessible guidance for the amateur. FLICKR can take video of up to 1GB but will only play back the first three minutes.

360 & VR Facebook and YouTube in particular are chasing this new way of shooting video but there is little out there on maximum and optimum upload times.

Useful? Not half as useful as the new round of ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS FOR COMMS workshops in Edinburgh, Manchester, London and Birmingham. More here.

 

 

Share this:

  • Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Blog Stats

  • 201,109 hits

daniel.slee1972@gmail.com

Join 1,675 other followers

Recent Comments

Jill Spurr on 30 days of human comms: day #4…
Wobable on LONG READ: Why you should have…
johnpopham on NEW FRIENDS: What big changes…
rachaelstray on 30 days of human comms: #28 A…
Highwaylass on 30 days of human comms: #27 Lo…

RSS

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

A tag cloud for this blog…

#commscamp advice audioboo barcamp bbc birmingham birmingham city council blog blogging brewcamp cake case studies case study comms comms2point0 communications community customer services data digital digital communications emergency planning Facebook flickr Flickr meet Foursquare future government grit gritting history human comms hyperlocal hyperlocalgovcamp hyperwm innovation instagram Jim Garrow Journalism learning lga linkedin localgovcamp local government news newspapers open data ourday photographs photography pictures pinterest police PR predictions press office Public Relations public sector snow social media statistics Tim Berners-Lee twitter uk unconference video walsall walsall 24 Walsall Council web web 2.0 websites West Midlands wordpress YouTube

@danslee on Twitter

  • Few footballers come back to a heroes' welcome. @JonWalters19 at Stoke today is one: stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football… 1 hour ago
  • RT @PaulPEsq: The NHS does a wonderful job. Free happiness being administered by this fabulous nurse in St Pancras this morning. Thank You!… 10 hours ago
  • RT @guygunaratne: Sixty years ago my father was a teenager and a new immigrant in 1950s London. He used to sneak into Foyles every Saturday… 14 hours ago
  • RT @JaneChicoMendes: Once and for all, and I’ll say it loud so everyone in the back can hear me: ‘PR’ STANDS FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS. NOT PR… 14 hours ago
  • Hey Stokies. Remember when Alan Ball got the send-off he deserved? 14 hours ago
  • Dear @arsenal. Appoint Tony Pulis next. Dares you. 15 hours ago
Blog at WordPress.com. Mid Mo Design.
Cancel
%d bloggers like this: