Hi Community!
This blog post is for those who are interested in content creation and for those who are interested in how to determine what format your content should be in.
I’ve spent years creating content across every platform imaginable, and I’ve learned a crucial lesson, sometimes the hard way: the format you choose is as important as the message itself. Trying to cram a deep-dive tutorial into a 60-second video is like trying to explain the intricacies of a Flow Designer process in a single tweet. It just doesn’t connect.
Before we get into the guide though, it's not a list of rigid rules (incredible niches and communities can grow from exceptions to any rules), but the key to all of this is being intentional. Think of this as understanding which way the river is flowing. You can choose to go with it for maximum reach, or you can intentionally be the rock that diverts its flow to create something new and powerful.
The Quick Guide: Your Content-Format Cheat Sheet
For those who want the highlights, here’s a high-level guide. If you want to understand the why behind these suggestions and when to break the rules, keep reading for the deep dive.
- Short-Form Video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts): Use for quick, high-impact entertainment, humorous skits about the tech world, relatable developer moments, and lightning-fast Q&As. Hook them in 3 seconds.
- Shorter Video (3-5 min YouTube): The sweet spot for technical tutorials. Dedicate the video to answering one specific question or showing off one specific feature. Think: "How to configure a notification in ServiceNow Studio."
- Long-Form Video (30+ min YouTube): Perfect for full deep dives, end-to-end project builds, or complex conceptual explanations. Requires a plan to keep viewers engaged.
- Live Streams (YouTube, LinkedIn): Ideal for interactive sessions, live demos, and audience Q&As. The value is in the unedited, authentic interaction. Your personality is a key feature here.
- Blog Posts (Personal or Community): Unbeatable for detailed, technical write-ups, tutorials with lots of code snippets, and nuanced thought leadership. They are searchable, updatable, and easy to reference.
- Podcasts: Best for conversational deep dives, interviews, and exploring the "why" behind technical topics. The banter and storytelling make complex ideas memorable.
- Feed Posts (LinkedIn, Instagram): Use for sparking professional conversations, sharing infographics, and creating snackable mini-tutorials via carousels. Tailor your hook: text-first for LinkedIn, image-first for Instagram.
Choosing Your Format with Intention
Short-Form Video (< 3 minutes): The Art of the Scroll-Stopper
I’ve been lucky enough that my comedic tech skits have brought in millions of views on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. It’s not because I’m a professional comedian; it’s because humor is a shared language. Making fun of ourselves, our industry, and yes, even our own software, shows a relatability that cuts through the corporate noise. To make a ServiceNow concept funny, I just think about my own experiences: the frustrating, the surprising, the exciting. That shared feeling of “I’ve been there” is what earns the laugh and the follow.
- When to use it: When you want to build brand awareness, show personality, and connect with a broader tech audience. A skit about the first time you ran a script in production will be more memorable than a dry feature list.
- Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Ignoring the 3-Second Rule: If you haven’t hooked them immediately, they’re gone.
- Forgetting Accessibility: Most short-form is watched muted. Use burned-in captions.
- Treating it like a Trailer: Don’t just chop up a longer video. Create a standalone piece with its own hook, story, and payoff. A purpose-filmed clip will almost always outperform a snippet from a longer session.
- Remember: If this appeared in your feed, would you immediately swipe it away?
"Shorter" Video (3-5 minutes): The Technical Sweet Spot
Think about the last time you were stuck on a problem. You likely searched Google or YouTube for a very specific topic. You didn’t want a 60-minute lecture; you wanted a 4-minute video that got right to the point. This is why shorter technical videos have so much power, it’s designed to be the exact answer to a specific search query.
Some our most successful playlists are collections of these concise, targeted videos. Each one stands on its own, but together, they form a comprehensive learning path.
- When to use it: For a focused demo on a single feature, a tutorial on a specific task, or an answer to a common question from the community.
- How to Keep it Concise:
- Cut the Fluff: Keep your intro short.
- Stay on Topic: Ask yourself, "Does this detail serve the video's core promise?" If it's a "nice-to-have," put it in the description or save it for another video.
- Edit for Brevity: Edit your video so that what is left is only what drives the conversation/topic forward.
- Remember: Watch your own video. Does it feel like something you’d watch yourself? If you get bored, so will your audience.
Long-Form Video (30+ minutes): The Comprehensive Journey
Long-form content is for the dedicated learner who wants to see the entire process. To hold someone's attention for this long, you need to create a rhythm. I do this by oscillating between two paces:
- The high-level "why": Explaining the overall goal and the strategic thinking.
- The deep-dive "how": Showing the click-by-click, line-by-line execution.
This back-and-forth keeps the content from becoming a monotonous tutorial.
Additionally, something we are trying more of now is that we try providing resources along with these videos (and live streams). If I'm walking through a lab, I share a link to the lab materials. If I’m writing a complex script, I’ll publish a blog post with the code snippets right before I go live. This respects the viewer's desire to follow along and is an act of empathy for different learning styles.
- Other tips
- Captions: for all video lengths, captions are great for both those who cannot utilize the sound and for those who rely on auto-translation services (look up how to make a sidecar .srt file instead of burning-in your captions).
- Chapters: On YouTube, adding chapters in your description helps break up videos into chunks that help the user digest the longer content.
- Remember: 30 minutes is a long time to ask of someone in an age where every device and screen is asking for our attention, how are you making your videos more consumable and worthy of the viewers’ time?
Live Streams: The Power of Being Human
Live streams are powerful because they are unedited. That might sound scary, but it’s a feature, not a bug. It’s where your community gets to see the real you.
Just this morning, I started a stream and talked for three full minutes while muted. When I realized my mistake, I leaned into it. I facepalmed hard and bowed my head in defeat, and the chat lit up with encouragement. They loved it (despite my incredible embarrassment)! We immediately wove it into the theme of our channel: we make mistakes, we own them, and we work through them live. Those moments of personality builds trust that perfectly polished, pre-recorded videos sometimes cannot do.
- LinkedIn vs. YouTube: Be intentional. My LinkedIn network is full of industry professionals looking for career insights, networking, and trends. But on YouTube, people subscribe to many kinds of channels and are open to a wider variety of content. A professional-focused panel discussion is perfect for LinkedIn Live. A hands-on build-along with a bit more personality shines on YouTube Live.
- Pro-Tip: Live streaming is a team sport. If you can, have a dedicated producer switching scenes and a person monitoring chat for questions. This frees up the presenter to focus on delivering a great demo.
- Remember: You have a live audience, do not neglect them or else why make it a live stream?
The exception to this last statement about "why make it a live stream" is if you're doing it for efficiency. The ultimate goal for many of us is to produce a high-quality video that's ready to publish the moment you go offline, saving you from the time-consuming process of post-production editing. To make this work, you have to treat the live stream like a VOD (video-on-demand) from the start. This means practicing good on-air discipline: jumping right into your topic without the "we'll wait a few minutes for people to join" dead air, maintaining a clear structure for your content, and managing chat interactions in a way that adds value without derailing the core topic for future viewers. If your stream involves long pauses, gets heavily sidetracked by conversations that only make sense in the moment, or suffers a major technical issue, it will likely create a poor VOD experience. In those cases, you should protect your audience's time. Don't publish it automatically. Take it down, edit out the rough spots, and then release the polished, valuable resource you intended to create all along.
Blogs: The Foundation of Detailed Knowledge
In a world dominated by video, don't let the hype make you forget the foundational power of the written word. A blog post remains one of the most valuable assets you can create, especially for a technical audience. It offers a level of control and utility that other formats simply can't match.
Here’s why a blog is still the ideal format for your most detailed work:
- Unmatched Detail: You have unlimited space to explore nuance, provide comprehensive explanations, and cover edge cases that would never fit in a video.
- Developer-Friendly: A blog is easily searchable and, most importantly, allows for copy-and-pasteable code snippets, a true developer’s dream.
- A Living Document: Unlike a video, a blog post can be easily updated when a feature changes or a new API is released, ensuring your content stays relevant over time.
- Precision and Control: Text gives you the ultimate control to explain complex ideas with the exact precision they require, without the risk of being misunderstood on camera.
- Large Language Model searching: Blogs and written posts are still the main drivers for LLM Search engines like Perplexity and Google AI Mode.
Podcasts: Where Banter Becomes a Study Guide
For those who learn best through conversation, or for anyone trying to learn while commuting, walking the dog, or washing dishes, audio is a uniquely powerful and intimate medium. A podcast excels at making dense topics feel accessible and turning complex ideas into engaging stories.
It’s like an audio study guide that connects with listeners because it:
- Fosters Connection: The conversational format feels like listening to trusted friends, making the learning process less intimidating and more engaging.
- Makes Ideas Stick: The natural flow of conversation, complete with banter, anecdotes, and real-world examples, helps make complex technical ideas memorable and easier to latch onto.
- Strips Away the Filler: A good podcast conversation cuts to the heart of a topic, breaking down dense subjects into digestible insights and key takeaways.
- Offers Passive Learning: It allows your audience to absorb information while doing other things, fitting into the pockets of their busy lives where a video or blog post can't.
Feed Posts (LinkedIn & Instagram): Visual Anchor Posts
Shout out to Paul Pradap Chandru for pointing out that I was missing Instagram posts! While I covered Instagram Reels in the Short-form section, I’m editing this blog to add this section about “Feed” style posts.
A well-crafted static post can be a powerful anchor, stopping us from scrolling and inviting a moment of focused attention. While they might seem simpler than video, text-and-image posts on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram have their own set of rules for success. The key different lies in what leads the conversation: the text or the image.
LinkedIn Posts: Where Text Leads the Way
On LinkedIn, the audience is looking for professional insights, career lessons, and industry analysis. Here, your words are just as important as the visual that you include. The first one or two lines of your post are the most valuable real estate you have (especially because the rest of your text is often hidden under the “view more” fold). An image or graphic serves as a scroll-stopper and a visual reinforcement of your message, but the text is the key to any call-to-action or engagement you hope for.
When to use it: For sharing thought leadership, announcing new content (like a blog or video), summarizing key takeaways from a project, or asking a question to spark a professional discussion.
How to Make it Effective:
- Craft a great hook: Your first sentence must create curiosity or state a bold opinion to make people click "...see more."
- Use Strategic Formatting: Break up long paragraphs. Use bullet points or numbered lists to make your key points scannable and digestible.
- The Image is Supportive: The visual should complement your text. This could be a simple branded graphic with a key quote, a relevant photo, or a chart illustrating a point. Its job is to grab the eye, so the brain can engage with the text.
A Special Case: The LinkedIn Carousel (The Snackable Slide Deck)
A carousel post (uploaded as a PDF) is one of the most engaging formats on the platform. It turns a static post into an interactive mini-presentation, encouraging users to click/swipe through to get the full story.
When to use it: Perfect for repurposing content. Turn a blog post into 5 key takeaways, a tutorial into 7 step-by-step slides, or a complex concept into a simplified visual breakdown.
Carousel Best Practices:
- Your First Slide is the Title: Treat it like a headline. It needs to be compelling enough to earn the first click.
- One Idea Per Slide: Don't clutter your slides. Keep them clean, visual, and focused on a single point.
- End with a Call to Action (CTA): The final slide should encourage engagement. Ask a question, prompt a discussion in the comments, or direct them to a link.
Remember: A great LinkedIn post starts a conversation. The goal isn't just to broadcast, but to engage with the comments and build your professional network.
Instagram Posts: Where the Visual Tells the Story
On Instagram, the roles are reversed. The image or graphic is the hero. It's the first thing people see and it must tell a story, evoke an emotion, or present information in a visually stunning way. The caption provides context, adds depth, and drives the conversation, but it can't save a weak visual.
When to use it: Ideal for behind-the-scenes glimpses, infographics that simplify technical topics, visually appealing code snippets (styled for readability!), or team photos that showcase your company culture.
How to Make it Effective:
- Prioritize Visual Quality: Grainy photos or poorly designed graphics won't cut it. Your visuals need to be crisp, clear, and on-brand.
- Let the Caption Add Value: Use the caption to explain the "why" behind the photo, share the step-by-step process of the infographic, or tell the personal story that the image hints at.
- Leverage Carousels for Education: Instagram carousels are fantastic for mini-tutorials. For example: Slide 1 shows the final result of a UI design, and slides 2-5 break down the key steps to achieve it.
Remember: On Instagram, you are building a connection with the person or brand behind the account. Your feed is a visual representation of your story so make sure each post is a compelling chapter.
Your Turn to Share
I know this is a lot to take in. But remember that first question? Why are you doing this? You have a unique perspective worth sharing.
So here’s my challenge to you. Don't worry about being on every platform or being perfect. Start with the format that feels the most fun and interesting for you. If you love writing, start a blog. If you love talking, record a podcast.
And as you begin, remember that being intentional with your format isn't about following rules, it's about respecting your audience and making your powerful message even more effective. It’s an act of understanding that builds trust and turns an audience into a community.
Now go create something amazing. We’re all waiting to learn from you!
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