I know I speak for many people (including myself once) when I say Instagram reels can seem daunting, and it can be the most challenging part of social media for many. However, they are much simpler than they look. In this blog, I am going to take you through some of my top tips to keeping up with reels.

Instagram reels are one of the most effective methods of pushing out content on social media, and the way things are going, the popularity of reels shows no sign of abating. If reels are not yet a part of your social strategy, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. They can help brands to gain better audience engagement and raise brand awareness, as well as being a great way to tell your brand story.

Top Tips:

  • Plan out your reel first – The last thing you want to be doing is staring at a blank screen, with no plans or ideas. Don’t be afraid to get creative with it, or even look at other trending videos for inspiration. Have a message in mind – what is the point of this reel? Is it to introduce your team, highlight a product or even share tips and tricks.
  • Use trending music – Music is a huge part of reels, and by using trending music, you can make sure that you are captivating your audience. Those first 3 seconds are the most important to get a viewer to watch your whole video.
  • Keep it short – Again, those first 3 seconds are key – make sure you draw in your audience here. Most trending and well-performing videos will use those three seconds to show the highlight of the video and hook in audiences – whether it be an answer to a Q&A or revealing the end result of a recipe.
  • Add captions – For those that don’t have their sound up, you want to capture their attention too. Adding captions will allow them to know what the video is telling them, without having to turn up their volume.
  • Use templates – It can be difficult to know where you are going with a reel, but using templates are a great way to get yourself off to a good start. Whether you are using apps like Canva or Instagram’s own templates– these are great ways to create fun and engaging content. You can even use images or videos that you have already taken, to create a fun reel.

From behind the scenes (BTS) to recipes, look backs to hacks, sneak peaks to Q&A’s there are lots of angles you can use for your reels. Just take a look at our reel here for Bring Your Dog to Work Day.

Another great way to make sure your reels are successful is by hopping onto trends. Whether it’s trending music, or a video trend, this will grab your audience’s attention. Spend time scrolling through videos to get a feel for what is popular at that moment in time, or for inspiration. It can be difficult to keep up, as things can move so fast. Some of the top trends this year are diverse as butter boards to health snacking, ASMR cooking to day-in-the-life of1. But you’ll know from your feed and your audience what will work best for you and if not, social media makes a great platform for testing things!

Equally, if you’d rather put your social in the hands of professionals why not get in touch with us today @jellybeanagency or contact us here.

1Statista insights – May 2023