“The good, if it is brief, is twice as good.” TikTok starts from this premise to create its contents: to date, a limit of 60 seconds of material with a high concentration of creativity. Or at least this is what its creators try to achieve in order to gain the attention of their followers, something that for the moment is working.
However, the social network is now seriously considering extending the length of the videos to 3 minutes, as noted by specialists such as Matt Navarra, who recently announced it on his Twitter account.
What began with a duration of 15 seconds and ended up being extended to 1 minute, is now tripled, which means no little impact on the way users use the application. Especially brands, who are already seeing an opportunity to show more products, do promotions, and so on.
Ways to take advantage of the new format
The three-minute TikTok videos can be used for tutorials, promotions or guides that users have so far had no choice but to collect into several clips. Even so, there are those who still believe in the potential of micro-videos, that small but highly concentrated dose of creativity that TikTok offers to date, and which is undoubtedly responsible for its great appeal.
You have to put all your eggs in one basket to catch the attention in just 60 seconds, so if TikTok ends up extending its videos to three minutes, it may lose some of its essence… and become something else. But in the event that it does, it offers advantages.
And this is not the first time this happens….
We are referring to the fact that social networks have extended the length of their publications, as happened in 2017 with Twitter, when it announced the duplication of the format of its tweets. At that time, many users made fatalistic forecasts that predicted the decline of the social network if it exceeded the 140 characters that made it famous. It is clear that they were wrong, because with its 280 characters Twitter retains the same level of popularity and is consolidated as one of the most recognized social platforms.
Another similar example can be found in Instagram, which from 20218 incorporated the IGV function, allowing 10-minute videos to be uploaded and 60 minutes in verified accounts. And it didn’t stop there; in 2020 it extended the ratio to four hours of live transmission.
A real step forward for TikTok?
Surely the key lies in the message it intends to convey to the viewer, improving the overall experience. One option could be to combine short, fast videos with longer ones, improving the quality of the content.
Right now the ground is fertile for hypotheses: we will have to get rid of doubts with the testing phase aimed at checking the real effectiveness of the three-minute videos. Because some users are already testing this extension in its beta version, although it is not known how TikTok has chosen them. The social network has not confirmed the news that gives the title to this article either: another reason to think that the final decision will depend on the success of the test.