Is 9 minutes really long-format?

Here's the context

I'm merrily scrolling through LinkedIn when a connection of mine reacts to a post. A post about authenticity needing to be your number 1 approach to social media and how they had watched a 9 minute TikTok by a creator who they now trusted implicitly. And the only thing I could focus on was their comment about how long-format was having a comeback. Leading to: is 9 minutes really long-format???

Let Disney+ enter the chat

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie High School Musical Disney+ uploaded the movie in full over 52 clips.

Would you watch a whole movie as TikTok clips? Now, don't get me wrong I love movie clips featuring in my feed, a personal fave being Classic Hollywood Dancers as seeing these old routines gives me so much joy. But, to watch Singin' in the Rain in full, this way, I'm not so sure.

Long-format at its finest

Over Christmas, like the rest of the world I was massively invested in re-watching and then catching up with Stranger Things. Mid re-watch I encountered the below meme:

It got me thinking, especially taking into account the other examples of content consumption given in this email, perhaps I have always been consuming in clips. Is it any different to reading a chapter of a book every night (something I do daily), then needing to read one more page?

Musings into action

So, what can you take away from this email of me musing over what is long-format content? When you are telling a story, consider what is the most digestible chunk for the platform you are on:

A 1 hour 30 minute movie = 2.5 minute TikTok clips

An impassioned statement = 9 minute TikTok video

10 hour story = 8 Netflix episodes

1 blog post = 8 slide carousel on Instagram

If you get the ratio right, and add that cliff-hanger/cheeky tease at the end, your content (no matter how long it is in its original state) will soar.

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