Subs, likes and comments... I am afraid that's all on you. While we can help you get your video in front of the right audience by mastering your SEO actually convincing viewers to engage with your content depends entirely on how compelling your video is. I do suggest applying creative Call-To-Actions (CTA's) in order to encourage viewers to engage; we are all pretty immune to the typically 'make sure you like and subscribe and ring the bell...' so I do suggest taking some time to try and come up with a creative way of doing so.
Now, doing all of this and applying it to a video that is less than 60 seconds? Tough call! But it can be done. Remember though that these viewers are looking specifically for short-form content and while you may get a ton of viewers the subscriber base that you pull from Shorts may not be the viewers you want. If they subscribe and then never come back to watch your content because they only liked the one Shorts video and are not interested in your longform content that will have a negative return on your channel. Don't let this detract you; there are things you can do about this. But be aware of this as an issue. Make sure that your short-form content remains consistent to your longform content.
And finally, you definitely need to treat your Shorts videos with the same respect you give your long-form content. If it is worth publishing then it is worth putting in the time to give it solid SEO research, a high quality thumbnail and even translations. You will have noticed that Shorts videos hit the shelf and get a ton of views... and then they totally die. That doesn't mean they don't have value as traditional videos. They can still be optimized for search and offer a second life as searchable content for years on end. Since these shorter videos will have a difficult time competing with longer videos (due simply to the amount of watch time they are able to garner) I do suggest using Shorts videos to target keywords which are highly underserved. If you target keywords with lesser traffic but almost zero competition you may not get as many views as you would like, but you can help to build authority in a niche by tackling peripheral keywords en masse. For example, if you are trying to build authority on the topic of Texas Fishing you can use Shorts videos to target keyword phrases like 'saltwater Texas fishing like you have never seen' or 'Texas fishing all along the Gulf Coast of Mexico.' Sure, not many people are searching these phrases. But by ranking for these very easy to win terms you build a foundation of authority for everything associated with the term 'Texas Fishing' and that is how you can win that larger term as a smaller channel.
