Creating Instagram Reels for your brand or business can be one of the best ways to get more followers and engagement on Instagram, in fact it's pretty much the only way to grow on Instagram right now.
We’re sharing our favourite Instagram Reels hacks that are guaranteed to make your videos stand out from the crowd.
With Tiktok ten steps ahead of Instagram at every turn, and Instagram dramatically decreasing reach and visibility in many ways, making it harder for new businesses and creators to find any growth on the app, reels are the only way to consistently reach an audience. Especially in light of Adam Mosseri's recent video about how Instagram is shifting their focus and restructuring the app to focus on video and content creation, i.e become a Tiktok alternative.
Here are our tried and tested tips that consistently work for our clients:
Tip #1 - Use On-screen Text and Captions
Adding on-screen text and subtitles great for people who watch without sound, you can add it to your reel by using the caption sticker
Tip #2 - Hop on Trends
To hop on a trend before it becomes old news, take a few minutes each morning to scroll through the Instagram Reels tab and other creators’ profiles to see what they’re sharing.
Focus on the audio, if it keeps popping up it's trending and you should use it before the trend is over and apply it to your niche. DO NOT post your reels to your feed if you're a relatively small account. Reels for small accounts do much better off-feed.
Tip #3 - Encourage your viewers to head to your bio link
The best way to drive traffic from Reels is by including a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages people to head to your link in bio, whether in the video itself or in the caption
Tip #4 - Consistency is key
Feeds are constantly changing and updating, and unless you're posting consistently, most of your audience will miss your content and the algorithm won't push it to the top with its lower reach and engagement. The more people interact with your Reels, the higher the algorithm ranks it, the better it performs.
Tip #5 - Find Your Niche
Have you ever checked the hashtags on a popular post? You're more likely to see a few specific hashtags concerned with a specific topic or interest rather than as many relevant hashtags as possible. Instagram is doing a major cleanup these days and generic hashtags won't get to your desired audience as Instagram is limiting their reach. So for example if your product is a mint Brownie, use #mintbrownies rather than #brownielovers, do that consistently and you should see an uptick in your Reel plays And most importantly, test several posting times every week to find the time of day when your Reels get the most engagement. This is the time when your audience is most active and it's likely to fluctuate frequently and keeping track of it makes a huge difference in reach, engagement & ultimately reel ranking..
Finally, don't freak out
If your reach or engagement suddenly drops, Instagram is going through a lot of changes right now and it will take time for things to stabilize. Just remain consistent and niche down as much as possible.