THREE TIPS FOR GROWING YOUR BUSINESS WITH INSTAGRAM REELS
Hi there! Allow us to introduce ourselves – we’re Homemade Social, a boutique social media marketing agency specializing in social + digital + influential campaigns for lifestyle brands.
If you aren’t familiar with Instagram Reels, consider it a near carbon copy of TikTok. You essentially share short videos paired with an original or existing audio. For a physical example, you can check out our Reels here.
While it can be easy to get caught up in the “fun” of this feature, many brands are failing to recognize the power Instagram Reels can have on their account’s reach and engagement. In September of 2020, our agency began experimenting with Reels and by the end of the quarter, we saw a 91% increase in our Instagram following. The one change? We incorporated two Reels a week into our social media strategy. That’s it!
It’s safe to say our business saw exponential growth from using Reels and we know yours can too! Aside from their extensive reach, Reels can also positively benefit your business’ ranking within the Instagram algorithm. While a static photo may capture your audience’s attention for a few seconds to a minute, video can keep them engaged and entertained for minutes on end. Because one of Instagram’s primary goals is to keep users in the app for as long as possible, your goal as a creator should be to post content that users will spend an extended amount of time consuming. Video is one of the easiest ways to do just that! When users spend a prolonged amount of time watching your video, Instagram will then view it as valuable and “reward” you by pushing your content to more users.
Ready to start incorporating Reels into your social media strategy? Read on for our top three tips!
KEEP UP WITH TRENDS
While our social media agency has seen significant success and growth from using these features, we can’t deny that there is still a major pain point content creators face with this tool: staying up-to-date on trends.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP UP WITH TRENDS
Staying up-to-date on trends is important for a few reasons. First, trends are what people are searching for, so it can increase the discoverability of your content. Second, remaining on-trend establishes you as a powerful force in the digital space. Your foresight on exactly where your industry is heading and implementation of that insight in the present positions you as an expert, boosting your credibility and the value you provide to your audience.
HOW TO STAY UP-TO-DATE ON TRENDS
One of the best ways to stay on-trend is to consume content. Instead of leisurely scrolling through Instagram Reels or TikTok, scroll through from the perspective of your brand. How can you take the trending videos, challenges, and sounds that you’re seeing and make them relevant to your business and audience? You can find an example of how we made a trending audio relevant to our industry here.
Don’t have the time to consume? No worries, a new app called TrendTok Analytics will do all of the hard work for you. This app was designed to help TikTok users discover, analyze, and predict trends. Though the app was created with TikTok in mind, you can use the insight just as well for Instagram Reels!
Here’s a few TrendTok features we love:
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It allows you to easily discover and filter new trends by region, top creator, and category.
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It compiles a list of trending sounds and notes where the audio is trending, the number of views it has, and whether the virality of the song is predicted to increase or decrease.
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You can save sounds in the app to easily refer back to later.
CONSIDER YOUR 9 PILLARS
Content pillars are the areas of the content or topics that you post about most on social media. For example, as a social media agency, some of our pillars include: social media tips, our clients, our services, our team, and more. We recommend identifying nine content pillars for your brand and sharing about them in every 12 posts on your grid. This gives you the flexibility to share about some content pillars more than others.
Once your nine pillars are established, only post Reels relevant to those topics. This will force you to post content that is consistent and on-theme for you, which helps attract the right follower who WANTS to see your content. By posting consistent content, your audience always knows what to expect from you when you post. This encourages follower retention and prevents people from unfollowing in the event that you post something that your account normally doesn’t share about.
Think about it like this: Reels typically reach a larger audience than regular feed posts. You want this large audience exposed to your content to not only like what they see, but also like it enough to click on your profile to view more and ultimately follow you. In order for the follow to occur, the content on your profile needs to be consistent with the Reel that initially made them interested in you in the first place. The secret? Keep your content consistent with the nine-pillar method.
Pro tip: Use our free Nine Pillar Method Worksheet to establish your brand’s content pillars.
FILM CONTENT IN BATCHES
We aren’t afraid to admit that filming and editing Reels can be time consuming. Likely, there aren’t enough hours in the day for you to commit to filming on a daily basis. Instead, consider filming content in batches. Refer to our Instagram Reels Ideas and designate a few hours to creating Reels. Rather than posting them all at once, save them and spread out the posts over the span of a few weeks. Our account saw the most success when we posted two Reels a week, but quality is always more important than quantity. Do what feels right for you and your business.
We hope you found this blog post helpful in learning how to use Reels to further grow your business and Instagram! For more tips, follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out these resources below:
xx- The Homies
