What Are Instagram Reels?
Instagram Reels are easily-discoverable short videos used to share entertaining, educational, or inspirational content on the app. They are displayed on a scrollable feed in a vertical format, which makes them easy to “consume.”
Instagram Reels can be up to 90 seconds long and can also be shared as stories or normal feed posts.
Why Should You Create Instagram Reels?
Similar to TikTok’s content-sharing algorithm, the videos that get posted on Instagram Reels go beyond your existing audience and open new opportunities for you to reach your potential customers faster and easier than ever before.
Here are the three main benefits of posting Instagram Reels:
- Generate more exposure – Posting Reels will help you reach users who don’t follow your Instagram account and expose your brand to a whole new target market.
- Gain new followers – Dedicating your time to serve your audience and producing entertaining content pays off. People will start seeing you as a source of valuable content and they will follow your account to make sure they don’t miss out on your new posts.
- Boost Conversions – Products often go viral and sell out as soon as content creators bring them into the spotlight. So, make sure you plan content that highlights useful features, presents undeniable results and focuses on your unique selling proposition to increase your chances of becoming the next Instagram sensation.
How to Create Reels in 5 Steps
How many steps does it get to create a reel? By our calculations, only five.
Here is the step-by-step process of creating an Instagram reel:
- Record or upload a video
- Choose a trending audio from the Instagram music library
- Add creative effects
- Adjust speed, layout, and time
- Share your Instagram reel
1. Record or Upload a Video
Do you already have an Instagram Reel idea? Don’t let it slide. Instagram offers you all the creative tools you need to create high-performing videos without too much trouble.
Let’s go through all the ways you can create Reels on Instagram!
A. How to Create an Instagram Reel From the Reels Tab:
- Open the Instagram mobile app
- Click on the Reels icon at the bottom of your screen
- Click on the camera icon from the top right corner
- Tap and hold the record button while filming your real
- Add any finishing edits you might need and share your video
B. How to Create Reels From the Instagram Home Screen
- Open the Instagram app
- Tap on the plus sign placed in the top right corner of your screen
- Choose the Reels option from the bottom-right corner
- Tap and hold the record button while filming your real
- Add any finishing edits you might need and share your video post
C. How to Create a Reel From the Instagram Stories Camera
- Open the Instagram app
- Access your story camera
- Choose the Reels option from the bottom of the screen
- Tap and hold the record button while filming your real
- Add any finishing edits you might need and share your video
If you already have a video ready in your camera roll, the process gets even shorter. And you can upload your content from all the three locations mentioned above with ease.
Once you choose the Reel post format and have the camera open on your phone, all you have to do is tap on the gallery icon from the bottom left side and choose the clip you would like to share online from your camera roll.
2. Choose a Trending Audio from Instagram’s Music Library
Unless you want only to keep the audio of your original video, you don’t want to skip this step.
Here is how you can add a sound to your video:
- Open your Instagram camera to create your reel
- Tap on the music note icon from the left side of your screen to open the Instagram music library
- Search for the audio you would like to use and select it
- Adjust the part of the audio you would like to include in your clip
If you forgot to add an audio file before filming, you can also do this during the editing process. Here you will also have the option to record a voiceover for your video.
Adding music to your video can really tie your whole video concept together and keep your viewers engaged. You can keep the original video’s audio and add some background music to make it more dynamic or eliminate any dead air that might have occurred during filming.
Another relevant thing to keep in mind is that Instagram users can use other people’s original audio files. Usually, the creator sounds that gain attention from other users are the ones that have a transformative quality to them. They can become a way to tell a story or add to the humorous quality of a video.
For instance, an audio of a quirky laugh can make a funny clip more hilarious, or a snippet of a motivational speech can turn an aesthetic video montage into an inspirational clip.
3. Add Creative Effects
Instagram has an impressive arsenal of creative tools that are enough to make your videos stand out.
Here are the Instagram effects you can use to edit your reel:
- Filters: Utilize trending filters your audience uses to make your videos more relevant to what they do on the app.
- Stickers: Add gifs, animations, and polls to make your videos more interactive.
- Drawing on top of videos: Make your real original by drawing over your video, either to highlight something or just to show off your natural drawing ability.
- Sound effects: Add sound effects to emphasize the point of your video. Let’s say you told a joke, that is the perfect occasion to add a drum sound that signals the presence of a punchline.
- Templates: Instagram has a set of templates that allow you to make a professional Reel without even editing the video. Just upload your clips and images to make a quick video collage with already added filters and effects.
4. Adjust Speed, Layout, and Time
Besides filters, stickers, and audio files, there are some more editing tools that can help you make better IG Reels in no time: speed, layout, and time.
Do you want to create a time-lapse? Maybe you have a lot more to say and the time limit is restricting you too much. The solution is to adjust your video speed to fit your needs. A faster or slower pace can totally change the energy and feel of your video.
Furthermore, the layout feature is a tool unique to Instagram that allows users to film multiple frames and show them all at once under the umbrella of the same reel. This is great if you want to make your viewers stick around and repeat the video until they see all the different shots from your video.
Last, but not least, the Instagram timer enables you to be independent and film your video without having the awkward initial moment of fixing your camera before you get in the right frame or pose. Set your timer, prepare for the start of the video, and become the Taika Waititi of Reel directing.
5. Share Your Instagram Reel
After all that filming and editing, here comes the moment when you can share your hard work with your Instagram followers.
The trick here is to get the timing right. Those first few hours your Reel is up can decide the fate of your video. Let’s break things down!
When you are creating a reel, you have a specific target audience in mind that will view and engage with your content. So, take a moment to identify their schedule. When are they online and scrolling away through Instagram Reels?
Why do you have to know this? Because you have to make sure that as soon as you drop your video, there are people from your target audience ready to engage with your video. Otherwise, Instagram will interpret the lack of engagement as a sign of poor content quality, (even if it’s not true, timing is obviously at fault in this scenario).
As soon as Instagram sticks that negative label to your video, it will stop promoting it to other users, and your opportunity of reaching your customers has faded away.
The solution? Content scheduling. Upload your Reel to SocialBee, select Instagram as your platform of choice, pick the date and time, and you are all set.
How to Get More Views and Engagement on Your Instagram Reels
Now that you know the basics about Instagram video creation, it’s time to get into the tips and tricks side of the article.
Here are seven ways to get more views on your Instagram Reels:
- Use third-party tools
- Create seamless transitions
- Hop on trends
- Remix other Reels
- Recycle your Instagram stories and existing video clips
- Add timed text to Reels
- Make Reels shoppable
Let’s learn more about each step!
1. Use Third-Party Tools
So, where were we? Oh yes, we were talking about the right way to share Instagram Reels, which brings us to the next important aspect of social media content management: using third-party tools to generate more reach and engagement in less time.
First on our list…
SocialBee
As previously mentioned, timing is crucial for Instagram Reels. Scheduling your video posts ahead of time and adding a bit of strategy to your content planning can work wonders.
But how can you make the process more efficient and less time-consuming? After all, you are not always on social media, ready to share content. Easy, by using SocialBee.
Create, schedule, and share all your social media video posts across all your accounts from one dashboard. You can even customize your posts to fit Instagram’s content requirements and schedule anything from carousels to Reels and stories.
Plan your Instagram content ahead of time—post images, videos, carousels, stories, and Reels with ease from SocialBee.
Start your 14-day free trial today!
And that’s not all, with SocialBee you can automatically generate hashtags for your Instagram posts to make sure you get your Reels on the right user feeds. You can save all your hashtags in collections and add them to your content with a couple of clicks when it’s time to share a new post.
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