Instagram Reels Vs. YouTube Shorts
The short form video space is highly competitive and the most heavily-consumed form of media on social platforms at this time. One of the early frontrunners dominating this space was TikTok, but Instagram and YouTube quickly jumped on board to compete with their own vertical short form content features. Both YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels have advantages, but they also have vastly different audiences and approaches to success. In this platform battle, we’re comparing YouTube Shorts vs Instagram Reels to show how each is being used by creators and social media users.
Shortspilot
Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels is the newest major feature on the Instagram platform but has taken their place as a major competitor in the vertical short form video space. As short form video continues its explosive trajectory towards more consumption, Instagram is focusing its efforts on Reels instead of image posts or Story posts. Instagram reels presents an aesthetic approach for lifestyle content, it is often used for building a consistent image, and a new monetization model in development for the platform. It’s ideal for content creators to publish content with eye-catching visuals to build viewership and brands to build engagement for their businesses.
YouTube Shorts
While the format of videos is similar to Instagram Reels, up to now many YouTube Shorts creators have viewed the platform simply as a way to build viewership for their long form content on a main channel. This boosted the main channel’s monetization, helping creators make money from their media. It is often used as a trailer or teasers for a long form content,
When To Choose YouTube Shorts and When To Use Instagram Reels?
YouTube and Instagram are both popular platforms to use for generating income and wider reach, but each have a different target audience that you will learn on this categories to help you determine when you will choose the best choice for your content.
Organic Reach and Boosting Traffic
When it comes to organic traffic, YouTube Shorts is the better option. A YouTube channel that already has fans and subscribers is more likely to reach its followers each time it posts a video with a specific hashtag since that hashtag will be regularly tagged in that channel’s shorts. The popularity of following a specific channel provides a natural funnel for boosting organic traffic. Meanwhile, Instagram Reels have to compete on a wide range of personal and professional accounts that are shown in the same unending stream of videos. Instagram will determine which video will be seen by the users based on their personalized content preferences, while YouTube shorts guarantees traffic for your channel, following the hashtag means the viewer will receive the content even if it's has a wide range of selection. Therefore, targeting audience through a niche or an specific hashtag is definitely better be done with YouTube Shorts.
Platform Personality
Like individuals and companies, each social media platform has its own personality, subtle associations, and general characteristics. Instagram was known to be used to keep up with friends, trends, and fun content, YouTube is known for more instructional purposes, how-to videos, online lectures, video tours, and deeper analyses or explanations. YouTube Shorts tend to be better for high-quality professionalism, instructional how-to’s, live webinars, and even movie trailers. Instagram Reels, on the other hand, is best known for cute duets, pop music trends, lip-syncing, dance videos, and brief updates from home. In other words, YouTube Shorts offers more lasting content, while Instagram Reels provide content that is more ephemeral.
Time Frame Limitations
Depending on the type of content you would like to put out there (instructional, entertaining, announcements, reminders, updates, comedic bits, etc.), the time frame limitations for each platform will have a big effect. For Instagram Reels, the outer time limit is 90 seconds. Instagram Stories have a time limit of 60 seconds which can be a good way to entice viewers with a quick tidbit, drawing them in to view your full Reel. If your goal is to boost the number of viewers, it is a good idea to keep your Instagram Reel video short and snappy. On YouTube Shorts a full 60-second video will give viewers a deeper way of engaging with the material, drawing on YouTube’s audience, which tends to have a longer attention span for consuming online content. Quick Instagram Reels updates will most likely reach friends, family, or people who are already fans, while longer YouTube Shorts content will reach customers, clients, and people who are interested to learn more at their leisure.
Choosing between Stories and Shorts could ultimately come down to testing both of the platforms out and then seeing what works best according to the resulting data. This is because ultimately, you won’t know what works better until you try them both out.
3 Easy Steps to make your contents using Shortspilot.ai
1. Click "Create New Series".
2. Connect your social media channel and choose one of many niches from the drop down, select your preferred voice and language then click on "create", wait for less than a minute and your video is ready!
3. Adjust the script or the title as needed and click on update, then post video and it will automatically be posted on your preferred social media platform.