I love a good blog post, and Twitter was my first love when it came to social media channels, but today, text-based social media makes up less than 40% of time spent consuming content online.

That means if we’re not publishing video content regularly, we’re giving up on 60% of the available attention for the stories, messages, and other stuff we’re trying to get across to our audiences.

We know that we should be publishing video content, but what kind of video?

I believe that the notion that “attention spans have never been shorter” is something that’s holding us back. The implication is that, if we’re going to create video content, it has to be so funny, amazing, or well produced that it gets the message across in a few short seconds before people scroll to the next post. The evidence suggests otherwise.

A recent article from eMarketer showed that, even among Gen Z — the people who apparently have the shortest attention spans — 53% regularly watch videos that are longer than 90 seconds, including news, tutorials, and entertainment.

With the rise of podcast-style videos averaging over 20 minutes in length, and platforms like Instagram and TikTok pushing creators to post videos longer than 60 seconds, it’s evident that we’ve evolved beyond the 6-second clips popularized by Vine.

There may be some misconceptions related to attention spans, but the battle for attention itself is real. There has never been more content available, so we absolutely still need to find a way to hook people in and let them know that what we’ve created is worth their time.

So the question is, Where should we be sharing our video-based creations?

In another breakdown from eMarketer, they showed exactly where adults are consuming video content in 2024 and their watch time on each platform:

That all adds up to 2 hours and 21 minutes per day. Adults in the US are spending nearly as much time watching videos in their social feeds as they are watching TV. And every minute of that is not only time that they’re not spending reading text, it’s an opportunity for content marketers.

Is the shift from text or images to video uncomfortable for some brands? Of course. But digital marketing has always rewarded brands that embrace the things that make them uncomfortable.

Suggestion: Perhaps the easiest channel for video content right now, with the highest potential and lowest competition from other brands, is YouTube Shorts. If you’ve been curious about Shorts and don’t know how to get started, check out this guide from Buffer.