Growing Your Audience with Instagram Reels
Social media is an invaluable tool for drawing awareness to your shop, and utilizing the reels feature on Instagram is one of the quickest ways to grow your audience and reach! We’ve compiled 4 tips for creating highly viewed reels.
Did you know?
Meta (the parent company of Instagram & Facebook) recently announced that Reels now make up more than 20% of the time users spend on Instagram, and videos in general make up 50% of the time users spend on Facebook (source).
Tip 1: Use trending audio.
This does not mean you have to dance or lip-sync! (Although, if that’s your thing, go for it!) Using an audio clip behind your video that is currently gaining popularity is a quick way to get pushed up in the algorithm. There are two easy ways that you can spot trending audio.
Go to the reels explore page on Instagram. As you scroll through the videos, watch for the “trending arrow” in the bottom left corner. These are great options to choose from! If you click on the arrow, it will take you to the audio page, and you can hit “use audio” to create your reel.
You can also watch the trending videos on Tik Tok to get a feel for what will be trending next on Instagram. Typically songs trend first on Tik Tok, shortly before they trend on Instagram. To locate trending audio on Tik Tok, go to the discover page, where they make it easy to find trending sounds.
Tip 2: Show your face.
This adds a personal element to your content and helps people connect with your message better!
Tip 3: Use a variety of content.
Showcase your products.
Show behind the scenes of your business! This could be picking inventory (or trying it on!), stocking your space, a day in the life, etc.
Educational/informational. Teach others what you know! This can consist of tutorials, explaining more about your product, or how the shopper can include your items in their life.
Inspirational. There are many inspirational and funny audio clips to choose from! Choose a clip and find a clever way to connect it back to your product or shop.
Tip 4: Prioritize strong visuals.
At the end of the day, Instagram is still huge on visual quality! This doesn’t mean you have to have highly produced videos; in fact, the opposite currently seems to be doing better for social media. However, good lighting and a clean, uncluttered backdrop will always help your content stand out and can be quickly filmed from your phone. We love using a beautiful photo as a backdrop using the “green screen” option!
Bonus Tip:
It’s important to remember that there is an exception to every rule. These points are a great place to start, but don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works for you! For example, some people successfully post a reel to their feed, while others have more success posting it solely to the reel explore page. It may take some trial and error to see what works best for you, but we hope these are some helpful tips to get you started!
Painted Tree has no affiliation with any company mentioned in this post. These are resources we’ve found to be credible and enjoy using ourselves. Painted Tree does not claim the views or opinions of these companies as their own.