Can long podcasts compete with short attention spans?
With the advent of any new technology, there will come its detractors.
When books were first published widespread, people were concerned about information and how fast it spread, and the worry that people were going to get away from the oral storytelling tradition.
When Walkman first came out, people were worried that we would get less social because people were walking around with headphones over their ears all the time. And with short-form videos, there is the cry that our attention spans are getting shorter. But, what does that even mean? Is your attention span really short if you watch all 60 seconds of a 60-second video? Is your attention span short if you don't read all 400 pages of a book that you're reading at one time?
I think that there's a lot of misconception around what makes for a short attention span. And while I'm not a psychologist and I don't play 1 on TV, there have been criticisms of studies that have come out over the last few years claiming that our attention spans are getting shorter. And that's what I wanna talk to you about today.
Welcome to Podcast Workflows, where you get daily tips to improve your process, grow your show, and maybe even make some money. Each week, I also do a daily dive into the process of the world's most successful podcasters and reveal their tools, processes, and systems to help you simplify the production of your own show and reclaim hours in your day. You can improve your own podcast production process by seeing how the pros do it.
I'm your host, Joe Casabona. And today, I wanna talk to you about short-form versus long-form content.
See, I was recently asked if short-form has a competitive advantage against long-form and what the shrinking attention span means for podcasts. But, I actually think that there are a couple of misconceptions in the question I was asked. The first is that we have shorter attention spans.
TikTok increased their video length to 10 minutes and the sweet spot for YouTube appears to be 12 to 20 minutes. I wouldn't say that that means that we have a short attention span. If people aren't consuming your content, they probably don't like your content. People's attention spans are short when they don't care about the content. But when it's good content, we can capture their attention. That's why Martin Scorsese makes 2 to 3-hour-long movies because good content keeps our attention.
And the other misconception or implication in that question is that podcasters can't leverage short-form content, which they absolutely can. I'm doing it right now with just a little extra effort. They can keep the camera on while they record their podcast. And with some planning, make clear succinct points to the camera, then repurpose those clips on social. Or after you record an episode, you can recap it in short-form or audio. Plus, episodes can be less than 5 minutes. Daily short podcasts are increasing in popularity. After all, you're listening to one right now.
If you like this episode and want more content, like it as well as bonus episodes, newsletter, my automation database, and monthly workshops. You can become a member of the Podcast Foundry over at [podcastworkflows.com/join]. Or you can connect with me on just about any social network, X, Threads, Instagram, LinkedIn, or even TikTok. I am @jcasabona on all of those networks.
Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. I can't wait to see what you make.
Hey. Before you go, I want to tell you about a free resource I have called My Podcast Process Templates. They are a set of Notion documents that give you a full podcast planner, a show planner, and even some AI prompts to help you get the creative juices flowing. You obviously want to improve your podcast workflows and save time, and these templates will give you a basis for all of your other processes. Through my Notion and Airtable templates, I am able to automate a number of things as well as stay organized so that I am using my podcasting time more efficiently.
If you wanna get your hands on these templates completely for free, you can head over to [podcastworkflows.com/templates]. That's [podcastworkflows.com/templates] to get your free podcast process templates, today.
