Short-Form Content for Ocean Awareness: What Actually Works

1:05 Today we're gonna be talking about short-form content and how it could help spread ocean awareness. Now, I have to admit, one of the things that I have trouble with is doing short-form content Doing short-form content that is not a clip from the podcast. If you look at my Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, they're pretty much clips from this podcast. I videotape myself, I'm looking right in my camera right now. I videotape myself, and then my editor will take clips from the episode and post them up, usually two clips per episode, and post them up on TikTok, on Instagram, and on YouTube Shorts. And they kinda give people a perspective of what we're doing on these podcasts, and I think it's fun. It's a great thing to do. It's a lot of fun to be able to take part in this kind of stuff, and to get video out there to show people what I do here on the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

1:50 However, one of the things that gets difficult is when I'm trying to create original content in short-form content, especially video. That's a difficult thing for me. I have trouble doing that because when I do it, I talk too long, 'cause I'm so used to talking on a podcast, like a, long-form video where the three minutes, it's very difficult to fit the information you want in three minutes the way I talk. So I have to figure out different ways to do things, but I have some ideas on what I wanna do for short-form content. I've been watching the gurus, and the social media people and everything, and what people can do to help grow your content or help grow your following on this. And you know, I think what's interesting is we are getting into a period where followers, and this is all, all across all platforms, followers and subscribers are not as important as views and as watch time.

2:39 So making sure people watch your video or look at your posts for as long as possible, and making sure that they stay on the platform. I think that's something that's always been an interesting thing that social media companies want you to do in the different platforms. They want you to stay on the platform 'cause, like, you know, something like, a platform like YouTube, they're gonna show ads. So they want you to stay on the platform for as long as possible. Even with Instagram, they're gonna show ads, and TikTok, they're gonna show ads. They don't want you to go off platform. They don't want you to see a creator and the creator's like, "Hey, go to my link in the bio," and then go out there and get that kind of stuff. They want you to watch the video, and so that means your video or your content has to be watchable from start to finish.

3:19 So if you're doing three minutes of content, you want it to be interesting for three minutes of content. Whereas, like, a long form, although they want you to stay on as long as possible, they want you to stay on after the video or after they're listening. So I think that's really interesting to see. Podcasting is a little bit different, but we're gonna be talking about short-form content, 'cause I feel like this is where I have trouble. This is where the trouble really begins for me, is because doing any piece of content, and usually it's video, a short-form video, in between, like, 60 and 90 seconds is is not easy to do, especially for someone who likes to talk as much as I do. And so you, what you need, you need a couple of different things. You need it to be built for vertical viewing, so you're probably recording on your phone. You're having maybe one of those little microphones, like I have a RODE, a wireless mic.

4:00 You're probably looking, like, the sound has to be on. It has to be, like, a fast hook, 'cause people can scroll really, really quickly if they don't like what they see or they don't like what you're doing. It has to be something that's interesting to them. And it's not really a mini version of the long-term content. Like, my clips do okay, but they're not really built for that mini version or that timeline, right? Of the 30 to 60 to 90 seconds or even three minutes. And so it has its own format, and it has its own rules in this short-form content. And I think it's something that's really interesting. And a lot of people who do podcasts don't do short form, and short form don't do podcasts. And I think the two can really meld together because you're reaching a different audience. Just like when you go from podcasting on audio platforms and then bring it to a video platform like YouTube, you're looking at expanding that audience to a different audience.

4:48 Because people who watch YouTube podcast-listening people, which may not be short-form listening people. So they're all different types of audiences. So if you want to build a brand or in this case, if you want to spread ocean awareness, ocean science, ocean conservation, you will want to hit every different platform differently. You may not want to spread it out as I do, as repurposing. It used to be like, "Hey, just repurpose it. It's great." I don't think I'll ever stop posting those clips because they're so easy to post, but I gotta create something new in this kind of situation. I think if you are looking at doing short-form content, which I know a lot of people, like my daughter wants to get into short-form content. She gets into science communication, because she wants to be a wildlife biologist, because that's where the platform where she lives in, Instagram, TikTok, that's where she is.

5:32 She doesn't listen to podcasts. She doesn't really watch YouTube as much as she used to when she was a kid. And so now being, you know, 18, 19 years old, she is going to be going into this type of content, like short-form content. Now, the one thing is, is you're gonna be hitting a different audience, right? It's a different target audience. And the thing is it's a low commitment for the viewer, which means it's a low barrier of entry for that first exposure. The way TikTok works, even now, a lot of other platforms, whether it be LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube Shorts. The barrier to be exposed to something new is really low because the algorithm is just like, you know, you have the FYP page, the For You page on TikTok, where it's basically serving up content, like it's testing out content all the time in front of the user.

6:13 So I'll get content every once in a while that has nothing to do with what I like or what I've liked in the past. They throw something that's different. I'm like, "No, I don't need to know that." And then they'll give me something else, and then it continues to give me something. Then they'll give me stuff that I may not follow the person, but I continually get that video back. It's changed the way algorithms work across social media because the virality can increase so much because it's constantly showing your video in front of people that it thinks might like it, and it might be experimenting with people who may not like it. So your fringe becomes big. Like, you have your core audience, then you have your fringe audience that might pull in some things. So they may not like my podcast clips, but they may like a series that I'm going to do on conservation or a series I'm gonna do on education.

6:56 It really just depends on what they do, but they're gonna get those videos every once in a while, so I can get picked up by anybody. So it's not just going to my followers if I have like three or four followers. It's going to everybody. And then it kinda narrows it down based on what they've liked before. So if somebody likes a nature video or somebody likes an education video on something science-y or something wildlife, they might get one of my videos on conservation or on ocean conservation because that's in their wheelhouse and the algorithm figures that out, which I think is really interesting. So I think it's not a subscriber-driven algorithm, it's a video. It looks at what can go viral or what can do it, it makes things go viral. I had a video recently on TikTok that hit 107,000 views in, like, two days, and that was incredible, right?

7:41 And I was like, wow, this didn't really have anything to do… It had to do with ghost nets, and it was a clip from my podcast, and it just all of a sudden it went. All my other clips on TikTok were getting two, maybe 300, maybe 500 every once in a while, but two to 300 views, which is phenomenal to me. Like, I know that's not, like, influencer status or content creation status, like, where I can get money, 'cause in Canada you can't get money on the program from what I understand. But it's kinda cool to see that, you know, every once in a while something pops off that you don't expect. And so I think this kinda really works well in the way of posting and being seen, like, oh, this can go viral at any moment. Not that I'm looking to go viral or you should be looking to go viral. And by the way, when I say me, this is what I'm gonna do, I think this is something that you should consider doing.

8:23 If you're a scientist, a wildlife biologist, you're interested in science, or you're interested in nature, interested in the ocean, you should be posting on talking about things that you know, that you love to even find out. And I think, this is a great way of correcting misinformation. How megalodon myths or shark attack fear or viral animal videos, you can kinda take a look of what's the right thing to do ethically, what's not the right thing to do, what's real, what's not. It's a really good way to stitch something or get in on something and be able to talk about it. I think it's kinda cool to see. Now, two people I'm gonna be referring to throughout the week is Kristian Parton, who owns Shark Bytes on YouTube, and Kay Passionate, she owns a YouTube channel, but she also is on Twitch, she's also on TikTok, and she's also on Instagram.

9:03 They have big followings, right? Especially Kay Passionate. Kay Pass- has a very big following on a lot of these different platforms. And so it goes to show that you can talk about animals in a cool and fun kinda way, even just quote-unquote yapping type of way, which is, like, a new trend we'll talk about in a second on short form video and still be able to produce, like, really good content. It takes time, and we'll talk about that workflow in a second, but that's something that you can take a look at or do really well. Let's talk about what works. I'm not gonna talk about, like, yet about the video itself, but I wanna talk about what to post. You can go in and you can post random sort of ideas. You can do like education episodes, like taking animals, like we're gonna talk about the bullfrog, or we're gonna talk about the Humboldt squid, or we're gonna talk about the great white shark today.

9:46 Or, you know, I'm gonna comment on the latest Shark Week episode that I thought was either good or bad or for whatever reason. You could do like narratives or editorial-type posts. And so I think when you start to hone in on stuff and see what works and what doesn't, experiment, by all means. But I think at the beginning it's really important to figure out what you're going to talk about on a regular basis. What do you enjoy to talk about on a regular basis? Do you enjoy talking about just pure education? Do you enjoy talking about conservation projects that are happening? Do you enjoy doing like reaction videos, busting myth videos? I think doing it randomly is okay. I think you'll do okay if you do it consistently. You should come up with a plan of doing some type of series.

10:28 It seems that the follow me series on a journey will do better because people are invested in that journey. So there are a lot, you can see it in fitness. So there's a number of people online who are saying, "Follow my fitness journey. I'm trying to lose weight, I'm trying to gain muscle, I'm trying to lose my dad bod," all this kind of stuff. And you can say, "This is day one of me trying to lose or get into a dad bod with a kettlebell exercise thing." I've seen that from a guy that I kind of follow. I'm like, "Oh, that's kind of interesting." Like, these are really easy to do workouts at home and you kind of do it. It's kind of fun if you think, "Oh, I can't get to the gym today," or, "I'm recovering from something, maybe I can do this quick workout and do it that way." There's one woman who's on TikTok that I see, I'm sure she's on Instagram too, and she has quite the following, where she is learning something new every day.

11:12 And so she has a notebook that she writes down every day of something she learned that's new to her. And I think that's fun. That's a fun way of like watching something that's not detrimental to your psyche in terms and your mental health, but you're learning something new along with her. And then she actually sells her notebooks with all the stuff that she's learned and what you can learn and how you can follow the journey with her. I think it's really cool. So you can do a lot of these types of series where it's like these follow along journey series where you're trying to figure out something new or you're trying to talk to somebody and educate somebody and I think those seem to work really well. Now, the structure of the video has to be focused. And it takes a while to craft these. This is where I think is the most frustrating aspect of it because there are some people who will get on and they'll do this form that's yapping.

11:55 Yapping is just you're basically talking into your phone. You may have a microphone, you may not. It's very casual, and you're talking about one idea. And you have that idea, and you say it for, you know, anywhere between 60 seconds and three minutes, and then you just kinda go and that's your video. It doesn't have to be highly edited, it could just be casual, but you still have to hook people in. So the hook in the first one to three seconds is huge. Like, if you don't earn that next second, the algorithm will move on. It's not gonna push it out. So having something that is a strong statement and saying, "Hey, you know what? You need to capture me or I'm gonna continue to scroll. So it could be, like looking at sharks, like, " Have you seen the shark video that attacked the surfer?" Which you don't really wanna say that because that's kinda bad, but that catches people's eyes.

12:37 Or, "You're never gonna believe what happened in the waters of Monterey Bay with this great white shark." And then you can talk about what happened. You have to earn the viewer. If you're gonna do this science communication stuff, you have to look at how they're scrolling past and easy it's scrolling past. Having that first image, whether it be you or whether it be a picture of what you're talking about, and then that hook to say, "Hey, I need to hook you in. I need to bring you in on this episode. Follow me through this episode." I think that's important. And then of course, only introduce one idea per video. Like, not a summary of everything you know about that topic, but just one idea that can, you can say in one to three minutes. This is where I struggle, is the content itself, which is very important, and I think that's why I don't do it as much as I want to do it.

13:19 You have to just stick to one thing and realize that you have to put the information between one and three minutes. I think, you know, a lot of people talk about repurposing, and I just talked about it, like doing clips and things like that. I still think there's a style in each platform that you can do, and if you're able and have time to do those videos for each platform. I think short form video, if you're just filming it on your phone and not within an app like TikTok or Instagram, I think it's easier to cross-promote, like to go on Instagram and on TikTok. But something that works in Instagram may not work in TikTok, and vice versa. So don't expect the same kinda thing. So, I think you're looking at, like it's might be better to do like a native platform style over like a polished production too. It's like keep it casual. So overly produced content often underperforms, like raw, direct-to-camera style type of videos.

14:03 Which I said before, like yapping tends to be the big thing right now. It used to be highly produced video, now it's like, no, no, where you can just have a little chitchat in one to three minutes. And of course captions matter. A lot of people will watch videos where they're just reading the captions. They don't have sound on. They might be at work, they might be somewhere where they don't want the sound to be on, and they can just read those captions. So having clear, easily read captions are always great, just in case they're watching it with the sound off, which most viewers do. And then of course, you can start using trending audio and formats. One thing that Dave Ebert does on Instagram is he'll use pictures to promote our Beyond Jaws podcast, but he'll put some trending audio or put audio that he thinks that is trending, and he'll put it on, and it does pretty well, which is interesting to see. So those always help.

14:44 And then of course the big thing about when you're filming it. Filming one is an easy feat. Filming 10 is harder because you're always coming up with that creative aspect. Having consistency over, like, commentary formats or over, like, perfection is huge. Consistency over perfection is the biggest thing. It doesn't have to be crazy produced. All it has to do is get the point across, especially with short-form video. You capture the people for, like, less than three minutes. You wanna make sure you get your stuff across. That's really important. And then of course, like any kind of react and commentary format does really well, especially for science communicators. So reacting to a viral animal videos or any kind of news events is really, you can do that really well.

15:26 You can use like a green screen behind you. You can edit it after if you really want to quickly so that people can see what you're referring to. It's always great. Now, all this work, it takes time. It could take a significant amount of time, especially at the beginning. Doing your first like seven, posts where you're doing it once a day. You know, you're trying to create all that. That can be difficult. A workflow helps to organize everything, and do know that it gets easier as you continue along. So your first seven posts may not be that great, but then the next seven will be better than the first seven, and then the next seven will be better than those, and then you're gonna continue to get better and better. Your hooks are gonna get better. Your ability to speak between one and three minutes is going to get better. All that is gonna get better as you go along, but the consistency is what helps you build your following.

16:12 It's not just gonna be an exponential thing. It will be, but that beginning part is gonna rise slowly, and then as people start to catch on, you'll start to get bigger and bigger and get that hockey stick feeling in the graph, but be patient. The way I always look at it from a science perspective, from a conservation perspective is like if I wanna grow this, it's not about going viral, it's not about having the most followers. It's about how much information could I spread to the people who really wanna see it. The bigger you are, that's great, but you're gonna get a lot of haters out of that. So that comes with consequences. But when you just sit there and you can do it consistently, whether it's one day a week or every weekday or once a week or whatever, the more you post the better, and you'll get better and better and you'll probably start to like it a lot more. So I think that's important.

16:53 Let's quickly touch on monetization. Because it takes so much time, because you're working at it, I do think that there's ways to get money out of it. And if you're spending that much time and you're becoming a content creator, not an influencer, but a content creator, that's a really important part. But with these short-form platforms, they don't really pay like crazy like, something else, like another platform that we'll talk about this week. They're pretty small compared to long-form like YouTube. The partner program is pretty big. It's worth being up front with you that the amount you're gonna get is gonna be piddles compared to what you're gonna get on something like YouTube or somewhere else. And even then you need a lot of views. You don't necessarily need a lot of subscribers, you need a lot of views. So for instance, like the TikTok Creator Rewards program replaced the old creator fund, pays roughly 40 cents to a dollar per thousand qualified views, and it requires at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the past 30 days, and only videos over one minute qualify.

17:47 So they're trying to get people to do a little more long-form content on TikTok. You still need a ton of followers. You need those 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the past 30 days to continue to be able to build on this type of money. And I think it's only available in certain countries. I don't think it's available in Canada at this point. Now YouTube Shorts monetization's a little bit different. The RPM is much lower than TikTok, roughly about a cent to 10 cents per thousand views. But the sheer volume of views on Shorts can still add up, so there's still ways that you can actually build on that. Instagram Reels, the lowest direct payout of the three. It's comparable to YouTube Shorts, roughly one cent to three cents per thousand views through reels and bonuses.

18:27 Now, with Instagram, and I don't know if this is the same with TikTok. With Instagram, there are ways where you can sell subscriptions to specific content. So you can almost sell, like, a membership to specific content so that people can gain more about what you're doing. So the people who really believe in you and they're followers on Instagram, they wanna pay for that, they can subscribe monthly, and you can put out specific videos, you can go live for just them, and that kind of stuff. Typically, it takes a lot of followers to get that. That's why they always say over 10,000 followers. It takes a while to get there, but it's kind of interesting. Now, direct ad share payouts - it's really a volume game. And it's not usually a primary income of a lot of creators, especially with short-form content. The real money comes from indirect, like brand sponsorships, affiliate codes, product placement, and using clips as a funnel to monetize a long-form platform or a Patreon-style support.

19:15 So Patreon is for creators. It's a fund where people can pay to get, like, certain member benefits, which is like early release of episodes, or you could have, like, lives, or you can have groups similar to what I do on my Patreon. So you can work that for anything. TikTok Shop and affiliate programs it's become a bigger piece of the pie for creators as well. So yeah. So I think, like, the big thing to realize with all of this, Monetization for short-form is really difficult. Brand sponsorships and things like that that people get, that's great, but then you're beholden to that brand, so be careful of who you're willing to have, what type of brand you're willing to have on your TikTok, Instagram, and your short-form content platforms, because that will matter. People are gonna hold you to it, and you wanna make sure that, especially if you're talking about science, that it's science-related or conservation-related.

19:57 So make sure it's gonna do well for your actual piece. So miniseries does really well. You know, short-form is a great entry point. It's not the destination. You want to make sure that you have some kind of journey or follow-along video where you can just talk about one piece at a time, even it's at each and every day that's nice and quick and casual. You don't have to be overly produced. That's a benefit if you're starting out. And I think it's really important. I think it's really important to spread awareness. It's kind of interesting that if you've ever found a video where you have seen something, and say it's like a wildlife thing, and all of a sudden you look at it and you're like, " Oh yeah, this is really cool. I'm gonna go down this rabbit hole and I'm gonna follow this thing," that's where short-form really gets the awareness, and I think that's really important to do.

20:38 So that's the episode. If you have any questions about short-form content, feel free to reach out on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. links are in the show notes. Really appreciate if you have any questions, I can answer them however I can just based on my experience. I will be creating my own follow-along journey on short-form, like a couple of things, and I think you'll be seeing me talking about this type of stuff. So yeah. So it'll be a lot of fun to try this out, and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. Tomorrow, we're gonna be going into something I'm really familiar, uh, with, is podcasting and how podcasting has helped me and sort of the workflow that I've come up with to get to this many episodes, and we're gonna talk about that on Wednesday. So, stay tuned. Hit that follow button if you don't wanna miss any of the episodes, and of course, we're gonna be talking to Amy Weldon, who is in charge of the Blue Collar White Coat podcast, and she's releasing her second season on Friday.

21:26 You'll get to hear all about it on Friday's episode. I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.