How I Create Viral Social Media Videos in Under 10 Minutes (Using Only Descript)

For years, I juggled different apps to edit one simple video. One for transcription, another for cutting clips, a third for captions, and maybe a fourth for audio cleanup. It was slow, complicated, and expensive. I thought this was just the cost of being a creator.

Then I simplified everything. Now, I use just one tool for the entire process: Descript.

Let me share a quick story. I recently recorded an interview with a 62-year-old athlete at my local gym, Blackstone River CrossFit. Her story was powerful. I wanted to turn it into a short, inspiring video for social media. Using my simple Descript workflow, I edited and published the clip in less than ten minutes.

The result? Thousands of organic views, tons of comments, and a huge boost for that small business.

Today, I’m going to show you that exact workflow, step-by-step. This is how you can turn raw footage into a scroll-stopping social media clip without bouncing between apps or getting lost in complicated timelines.

The Challenge: Why Most Social Video Editing is So Hard

If you’re a small business owner, a coach, or a creator, you know you need to be making videos. But the process is full of friction.

Maybe you’ve experienced this:

This is why so many great stories never get shared. The process is just too hard. But what if it could be as easy as editing a text document?

My Secret Weapon: The All-in-One Descript Workflow

I’ve used Descript since 2018, and it has completely changed how my team at Feisworld Media creates content. It’s the only tool I need for 95% of my video projects.

Why? Because Descript lets you edit video by editing text.

It’s that simple.

When you drop a video file into Descript, it automatically transcribes it. To delete a part of the video, you just delete the text. To move a clip, you copy and paste the text.

This simple idea makes everything faster. But the real magic happens when you use Descript’s AI features, powered by their AI editing assistant called Underlord. It’s like having an expert editing assistant who does all the tedious work for you.

Let’s get into the exact workflow I used for the CrossFit video.

How To Use Descript To Create Viral Social Media Videos in 2026

Here is my entire process, from start to finish. I follow these four steps for almost every short-form video I create.

Step 1: The One-Click Cleanup (Edit for Clarity & Remove Filler Words)

First things first, I need to clean up the raw interview. People on social media have short attention spans. The speech needs to be clear, confident, and to the point.

In Descript, this takes about five seconds.

• Remove Filler Words: I click one button, and Descript finds every “um,” “uh,” “you know,” and “like.” I can review them and remove them all at once. This instantly makes the speaker sound more polished and professional.
• Edit for Clarity: This is an AI feature that is incredibly smart. It automatically finds and removes repeated phrases, false starts, and other confusing parts. You can choose a “low,” “medium,” or “high” intensity. For interviews, I usually start with medium.

With two clicks, the script is already 50% cleaner and more concise.

Step 2: Perfecting the Pace (Shorten Word Gaps)

On social media, pace is everything. A two-second pause feels like an eternity in a TikTok video. Long, awkward gaps between words or sentences will make people lose interest and scroll away. The conversation needs to feel tight and energetic.

Manually cutting out every tiny pause is a nightmare.

In Descript, it’s another one-click fix.

I use the “Shorten word gaps” feature. I can tell Descript to shorten any pause longer than a certain length. For social media videos, I find that 0.5 seconds is the sweet spot. This keeps the dialogue moving without it sounding unnatural or rushed.

This single step does more to hold viewer attention than almost any fancy effect.

Step 3: Crystal-Clear Audio (Studio Sound)

Remember I told you we recorded this interview in a busy gym? There were weights dropping, music playing, and people talking in the background. It was far from a perfect recording environment.

This is where Descript’s Studio Sound feature becomes a lifesaver.

Studio Sound is an AI-powered audio enhancement tool that removes background noise and echo while enhancing the speaker’s voice. Unlike traditional noise reduction tools that can make voices sound tinny or dampened by simply filtering out frequencies, Studio Sound uses regenerative AI. This means it isolates your voice, then regenerates it to sound like you recorded in a professional studio with a high-end microphone, even if you used your phone.

I just toggle it on, and the difference is incredible. Clear audio is not a “nice-to-have”, it’s a requirement. If people can’t hear you clearly, they will not watch your video. Studio Sound ensures my message always comes through loud and clear.

Step 4 (Bonus Tip): The Magic of Removing Retakes

This feature is one I use all the time for my YouTube video intros and other scripted content. It’s called Remove Retakes.

If I mess up a line while recording, I just pause for a second and say it again. I don’t need to stop the recording. When I’m done, Descript’s AI can listen to all the different takes and automatically identify the best one, hiding the rest.

For a conversational interview like the CrossFit video, I don’t usually need this. But for any creator who records tutorials, ads, or scripted content, this feature will save you hours of frustration.

Common Mistakes New Creators Make (And How to Fix Them in Seconds)

Using the right tool is only half the battle. Knowing what not to do is just as important. Over the years, I’ve seen creators make the same few mistakes that hurt their content’s performance.

Here are the most common ones, and how this Descript workflow helps you avoid them completely.

Mistake 1: Publishing with Bad Captions

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok can auto-generate captions, but they are often inaccurate. Misspelled words or incorrect phrases look unprofessional and can confuse your audience, especially the many people who watch videos with the sound off. Manually typing and timing captions is incredibly tedious.

Mistake 2: Thinking You Need a Perfect “First Take”

Many creators feel pressured to be perfect on camera. They get nervous, stumble over words, and end up re-recording the same 30-second clip for an hour. This leads to burnout and makes content creation feel like a chore.

Mistake 3: Ignoring the Audio Experience

We’ve become a visual culture, so it’s easy to forget that video is 50% audio. A beautiful-looking video with echoey, noisy, or quiet audio is unwatchable. Your audience will not strain to hear what you’re saying; they’ll just scroll on.

Beyond Social Media: Why This Workflow is Future-Proof for AI Search

Saving time is a great reason to use this workflow. But there’s a bigger, more strategic reason: preparing your content for the future of the internet.

Search is changing. Instead of just giving us a list of blue links, search engines like Google and new tools like Perplexity are using AI to give us direct answers. They read articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts to find and summarize the best information. This is often called AI-assisted search or Search Generative Experience (SGE).

So, how does this affect you?

For an AI to “understand” your video, it needs a clean script. A video with clear audio and an accurate transcript is like a perfectly written instruction manual for a search engine.

When you create content using Descript, you are automatically creating this perfect instruction manual. Every video you produce comes with a word-for-word transcript that is perfectly synced to the audio.

This gives you a huge advantage. When someone asks an AI a question like, “How do I make a social media video faster?” the AI can confidently pull an answer directly from your video because it knows exactly what you said. Your content becomes the source of truth.

This workflow doesn’t just make you a faster creator today. It makes you a more discoverable and authoritative expert tomorrow.

Why This Workflow Is for You

This process isn’t just for me. It’s a game-changer for anyone who wants to create more video content without the headache.

• For Small Business Owners: You can create testimonials, product demos, and social media updates in-house, saving thousands of dollars on professional editors.
• For Coaches and Consultants: You can turn your webinars, Zoom calls, and live streams into dozens of valuable short-form clips to promote your services.
• For Content Creators: You can produce more content, faster. This means more growth, more engagement, and less burnout.

Editing video should not be the bottleneck in your creative process. It should be the fun part where your story comes to life.

Working with Underlord: Descript’s AI Editing Assistant

One of the most powerful features I haven’t fully explored yet is Underlord, Descript’s AI editing co-pilot. Introduced in Season 6, Underlord is an agentic AI assistant, meaning it doesn’t just answer questions, it actually takes action on your behalf.

You can chat with Underlord and ask it to:

• Create rough cuts of your footage
• Apply visual styling and transitions
• Add B-roll and music
• Generate social media clips from longer content
• Make multiple tedious edits at once

You can think of Underlord as a talented collaborator who never gets tired and can execute entire editing workflows from a single prompt. While I primarily use Descript’s one-click features for quick social media edits, Underlord becomes invaluable for more complex projects where you want AI to handle the heavy lifting while you focus on creative direction.

You Can Do This, Too

I hope this breakdown shows you how simple and powerful video editing can be. The key is to stop thinking about complicated timelines and start thinking about your story.

Let a tool like Descript handle the technical, boring stuff. Your job is to find and share powerful stories. With this workflow, you can do it faster, better, and more strategically than ever before.

Ready to try it for yourself? You can get started with Descript for free.

Frequently Asked Questions

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About the Author: Fei Wu is the founder of Feisworld Media and has been using Descript since 2018 to create content for her business, clients, and creative projects. She specializes in helping creators streamline their video production workflows using AI-powered tools.