Move over Tik Tok, there’s a new feature in town. If you’re looking for another platform feature that that will make it feel like you’ve taken a 5 minute coffee break but it’s actually sucked 2 hours of your life away from you (with truly fascinating, and in my opinion, solid content), then raise the curtain for Instagram Reels 📹
Instagram’s new brain child, Reels, is a way to create and watch short and entertaining videos on Instagram. It teases the chance to become a creator on Instagram and reach new audiences on a global stage by sharing reels with your followers on your feed and make them available to the wider Instagram community through a new space in Explore.
How does it work?
You can find the Reels feature at the bottom of your screen when you’re in the Instagram camera. From here, you can:
- Select the audio you would like to use, whether it be music available from the platform itself, or your own audio. Be careful, if you use your own audio and your page is on is on public, other users can use your audio and film their own Reel with your voice in some kind of Instagram inception wizardry 🤯
- Get a little bit fancy with AR effects by selecting any of the options in the gallery that Instagram provides from their own creators as well as creators from all over the world. There’s a familiar Green Screen option (ahem, Tik Tok), that you can use to superimpose products or images into that inspire and delight your audience.
- Look! No hands 🙌 You can set a timer on your Reels too, so you can set up your phone and step back into the spotlight where you belong.
- Get techy and alter the speed to which your Reels will play at. Speed it up or slow it down based on the trend or dance you’re filming to make an impact.
Quick Tip: Reels can be recorded in a series of clips or all at once, and you can use existing content from your camera roll, too. Just hold the capture button and then use the process indicator at the top of the screen to pop all of your content in!
How do you share your Reels?
If your Instagram account is public, you can share your Reel to the Explore page, where it has the chance to be discovered by other people in the Instagram community. Whether you’re public or private, you can also share Reels as a post to your feed or stories and it will add that post to your Page. There’s also a Reels tab on your profile so people can see all of the reels that you have posted your page.
Quick Tip: If you share Reels to your stories, it will act as a regular story and disappear after 24 hours and will not be shared to the Explore page. A way around this is to post the Reel to your feed and then share to your story.
Watching Reels.
If you need some Reels inspo, check some out in Explore. You can see what’s trending and discover the Featured tab which is a selection of Reels chosen by curators at Instagram to inspire the community.
So how can I use Reels for my business?
We’re glad you asked! To be fair, Reels is someone’s worst nightmare if they don’t know how to create content, but if it ties into your marketing strategy where it will drive results for your KPI’s, you’d be crazy not to use it!
Leverage your existing content:
If you can create new content, more power to you! If you have existing assets, use these to begin your Reels journey and begin to trial and test what works and what doesn’t. Especially in the initial stages of the strategy, you want to be sure the content that you do create is resonating with your audience.
Product reviews and influencer content:
Showcase your expertise around your product or service and point your fans in the direction of your product reviews or influencer case studies that will show your happy, loyal customers in a fun and engaging way! You can use the effects, music, and countdown timer features to create native-looking reviews and case studies that entertain your followers.
BTS Content:
Behind-the-scenes content builds the relationship between you and your fans, and since Reels will be on the explore page, you can leverage this opportunity to begin building that relationship with new fans too.
For example, if you own an e-commerce beauty company you can use Instagram Reels to show the behind-the-scenes of you choosing your perfect formula for that new skincare line. These Reels can act as a bridge between brand and customer, making you more human and giving your consumer someone to relate to behind the scenes.
Whatever way you slice it, it looks like IG Reels will be here to stay in an effort to consume the up-and-coming competition, so if you’re interested in investigating a marketing strategy utilising this new feature before all the other brands come flooding in there’s only one place to start; get exploring!
Need help getting started? Reach out to us here to see what Reels could do for your business!
– – – – – – – –
Kristy is a compassionate, fearless team lead, obsessed with the art of baking. With experience in fashion and interior design, she loves the ocean and will never say no to a good bowl of pasta.
