As part of EKR Agency’s PR/Content team, I recently took over social media management for several of our clients. It’s been a learning curve, even for a digital native whose phone screen time lands around five hours a day. During that time online, I’ve recognized video content is the newest way to reach insane amounts of views, gain traction to your account and find new customers.
Instagram recently made the announcement that they’d be pivoting into a video-sharing platform. Some brands have adapted, learning all the new dances and trending sounds and applying them to their niche. Others have been hesitant to jump into the Reels game. You might post a Reel and watch as it blows up to hundreds of thousands of views and then only get three views on the next. What’s the secret? I’ve been testing out video content with various companies and have a few tips to share.
5 Tips to Create Reels That Perform
- Content is Everything
- Pick a Niche
- Get Rid of Tik Tok Watermarks
- Use Trending Sounds
- Post to Reels, Feed and Stories
Content is Everything
The best thing about Reels is the algorithms reward great content. The more effort you put into a video, the more likely it is to go viral. You can find ideas by scrolling through your feed, looking for videos that will resonate with your followers. Save trending sounds that could work with your content. Brainstorm a list of video ideas.
While humor might not be your company’s typical content, Reels are different from more serious platforms like LinkedIn. Irish airline account @ryanair has done a great job in this aspect. They use trending sounds to make content that reaches millions of viewers. These followers aren’t necessarily there to schedule a flight on RyanAir, but eventually, they might buy an airline ticket. Reels are an awesome way to gain awareness at the top of the marketing funnel.
Pick a Niche
Pick how you want to present your business to the internet through Reels. I’ve seen marriage therapists sharing relationship tips, chefs making ASMR recipe videos and various baseball teams sharing recent game highlights. EKR hosts a lot of travel podcasts in our agency including the Destination Marketing Podcast. We’ve been sharing the travel destinations people want to visit and their favorite places they’ve been. Find what’s working for companies in a similar space and find a way to adapt it to your business.
Get Rid of TikTok Watermarks
If you have content that did well on TikTok, it can be tempting to post the same exact video to Reels. Sometimes cross-posting is OK but make sure you remove the TikTok watermark before uploading it as a Reel. There are several sites online that do this for free. Better yet, create content within the Instagram app. It’s easier to create videos than on TikTok and it might help you out with the Reels algorithm.
Use Trending Sounds
Trending sounds are popular for a reason and a lot of eyes are on the videos that use them. Check out the sounds Reels recommend, make note of repeated songs that creators are using and check out trending sounds on TikTok. If sounds are trending on TikTok, they’re likely to be popular on Instagram as well.
Post to Reels, Feed and Stories
It’s a triple threat kind of thing. When posting a Reel, make sure to post it to your feed as well. You can add a different cover photo if you don’t want the video to be on your feed. This makes it so followers see the Reel and gives it higher visibility when you first post. Finally, post it to a story to increase the number of people who will interact with the Reel. If you post the Reel to all three places, it’s much more likely Instagram will show the Reel to more people.
Conclusion
Video content is the future of social media. It’s predicted that by 2022, 82% of internet traffic will come from videos. If you haven’t begun adding Reels into your social content plan, it’s never too late to start. Find a video idea to adapt for business and watch your followers grow!
If you don’t feel confident doing it on your own, reach out to us at EKR. We can help with consultation or even full social media management, helping post Reels and keep up with trends. Send an email to jared@ekragency.com and we can chat.
