Mastering the Social Media Video Edit

As brands are fighting for viewers’ attention spans, tailoring your content to different platforms is more important than ever. Different platforms will have different audiences with varying post dimension, length, and format expectations. But how does this apply to video?

Simple: It’s time to fit your full-length video into a social media format. 

It’s generally agreed that the best performing video lengths are around 15-30 seconds for Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Twitter. Facebook and LinkedIn are a bit longer, at one to two minutes. These feeds are bustling with a lot of activity, and every video snippet is vying for attention. A long video risks losing the audience’s interest before you hit your message. Keeping your message short and sweet is paramount. The more you respect someone’s time, the more willing they are to give it.

This likely means your original long-form video needs a new cut, but you don’t want to lose the magic of your current version. So, how do you create a video that conveys the same message and tone as the original in a fraction of the time? It starts with a fundamental understanding of the main message.

Think of it like an elevator pitch or a greatest hits version of the original video. You don’t need every detail—just the parts that make the biggest impact.

For this U.S. Coast Guard video, we had to condense two minutes and 40 seconds of content into 30 seconds for social channels. The original video consists of a few benefits statements with a lot of added context. While context is important, we recognize that context is only a setting. 

We needed to highlight the main message, so we chose the most valuable, impactful content from the interview. In this case, it was the introduction of the position and the focus on pollution response. This piece captured the emotional and practical takeaway of the original.

By the end, we have a 30-second version of the original two-minute 40-second video with the same key takeaways in a new format that is easily digestible and social media-friendly.

You don’t need to sacrifice your message for brevity. With smart editing and a clear focus on what you want your audience to come away with, you can deliver content that stops the scroll, makes an impact, and conveys the same meaning and tone.

Need help creating a video strategy for social media? Contact LMD.