Right now, it’s estimated that YouTube Shorts receive 30 billion views every day. Just Shorts alone have helped creators explode their channel by MILLIONS.

An example of that is Ian Boggs. He’s grown his channel to 4 billion lifetime views, with 73% of them stemming from his Shorts feed. When Ian leaned into Shorts, he gained 5 million subscribers between 2021 and 2022.

If you’re not posting Shorts, get on it. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into how to post to YouTube Shorts.

Get Creative

So, what do you post to Shorts? That’s a great question.

First, I have to say, every niche is going to be different. I know, I say that a lot in these types of posts. That’s because it’s true.

If this is your first time hearing this advice, great! But it’s always a good reminder that there’s never only one way to grow on social media. Growth and success have always looked and will always look different for every platform, every niche and every person.

I’ll give you examples of what worked for me, but keep your creative mind open because something else might work even better for you.

YouTube Shorts Strategy

I’ll start off by saying that when I started posting Shorts, I had no idea what I was doing. There weren’t any videos on “The Ultimate YouTube Shorts Strategy.”

With Shorts being so new, I had to figure it out and take messy action.

Here’s what I learned after my posting my first 60 YouTube Shorts over 60 days.

1. Repurpose Content

The first thing I did to start posting consistently on YouTube Shorts was I repurposed my content from my Instagram Reels and TikTok.

I know there are a lot of opinions on repurposing and recycling content. But I needed somewhere to start to post consistently and I needed to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

What better way to start than with content I already have? And I have a lot of content on my Reels and TikTok.

I used SnapTik.app and SnapInsta.app to remove the watermarks so that I could upload the videos to Shorts and see what happens.

2. Desktop vs. Mobile

What I discovered is that posting from a desktop, as opposed to a mobile device, is king.

Using desktop is the ultimate way to post Shorts.

Yes, you can still record and edit the videos on your phone. You can even upload the finished content on your phone, but only as a draft or unlisted! After that, post it on desktop.

From your desktop, you can add and customize your title, description, tags, thumbnail, etc. You can be really intentional with your strategy when you post on desktop.

3. Focus on Search Terms

I had a different range of videos when I started posting. Some videos were talking-head educational videos, some were lip-syncing entertainment and some were something in between.

What I did was intentionally categorize each video in its respective category, whether it was “educational” or strictly “entertainment”. Wherever it landed, I categorized it appropriately.

Then, I would use Search Terms or Keywords like “Instagram Tips” (or whatever the video was about) to make the videos more searchable.

If you want to learn more about YouTube SEO and YouTube strategies to be more search-friendly, check out my post here on how to grow on YouTube.

4. Make Casual Videos

Another thing I discovered (and found incredibly helpful) is that videos that look really casual performed better than videos that looked more fancy or formal.

This was huge! It showed me that I don’t need to think too hard about what to make for Shorts content. Yes, I still need a plan and follow-through on ideas, but I don’t need to prepare fancy YouTube setups and take 2 days to write out a script.

I just need to be casual and have fun. That’s what YouTube is pushing out and what people want to watch.

That’s a very different strategy compared to what works with long-form YouTube content.

5. Put Emojis in Your Titles

I also found that videos with emojis in the title got more attention and clicks than videos with no emojis in the title.

Honestly, I’m not really sure why. I think people just like emojis. And I’m right there with you. 🙌💪🧡🔥💯

Get Started

If you have no idea what to post to Shorts right now and you have a bunch of Reels and TikTok just sitting in your back pocket, start with those.

If you have 30 videos already made, set them up to auto-post over the next 30 days. After the 30 days, go back and see what worked and what didn’t and adjust your strategy from there.

What’s most important is that you start. The only reason I know what works for me is that I started somewhere and figured it out from there.

I encourage you to do the same. Start with what you have and figure it out from there. Your audience will eventually tell you what they like and what they don’t.

So, get started!

Follow your joy!