Why I’m telling my clients to use Instagram Reels

(And why you should, too)

I try to follow my own advice. Here’s a screenshot from one of my Reels.

Instagram. Many of us love to use it (over 1 billion of us, in fact).

But in my experience, many business owners feel intimidated about creating content for their business specifically on the Instagram platform. Why? My theory is that we have become accustomed to seeing very polished and highly edited (read, perfect) visual content.

Which is (in my opinion) one of the reasons Tik Tok took off. Tik Tok encourages users to create content by handing them tools that are easy and fun to use. On Tik Tok, there’s not the same expectation of perfect visual content. In fact, it seems that the more “amateur” the content, the better it tends to do.

Why some clients are intimidated to create content on Instagram

Here’s the metaphor I like to use when comparing the two social media platforms.

Instagram is like going to dinner at a fancy restaurant with a couple you don’t know. You’re dressed up, taken extra care with your grooming, and you’re putting your best face forward. You’re probably also editing yourself as you speak, because you’re conscious of how you’re being perceived by these new people and want to be on your best behavior.

With Tik Tok, it’s like going to your best friend’s house for dinner. You wear comfortable clothes, might go without makeup, and know it’s ok if you’re unfiltered, because you’re in a comfortable, accepting environment.

That’s why businesses are a little intimidated about creating content on Instagram. They worry that if all their content isn’t professionally edited and produced, that their content won’t work on the platform.

But, as you might have heard recently, Tik Tok’s future is uncertain in the U.S. The U.S. government has threatened to ban Tik Tok due to privacy concerns, so Tik Tok is seeing a U.S. based buyer. Lawsuits are flying back and forth, and no one can say with certainty that the app will be available for U.S. users tomorrow.

Tik Tok’s turmoil means opportunity for Instagram

During that turmoil for Tik Tok, Instagram seized the opportunity to launch Instagram Reels. Instagram Reels is an Instagram app feature that allows content creators to film or upload videos that they can manipulate with sound, music, editing, and even visual effects. Many of the same features that users love about Tik Tok.

It’s pretty clear that Instagram has launched Reels as a Tik Tok challenger.

One of the most interesting features of Reels, however, is that Reels can be shared in multiple ways, or as my team at Kafen8 calls it, on the many surfaces of Instagram.

The “surfaces” of Instagram

What we call “surfaces” are the different places and ways within the platform that you can view and share content. So that you understand where Instagram Reels fits in with the other features, here’s a quick primer on the various surfaces of Instagram.

Instagram Feed: (Also called the 9 box, or grid). This is where Instagram started. The Instagram feed is where users put their “evergreen” content that will stay on their profile indefinitely unless they remove or archive it. Feed content can be static photos, a carousel of multiple photos, or videos that are 3 to 60 seconds long.

Instagram Stories: Stories are only viewable for 24 hours and can be photos or video content. With the launch of Stories came AR (Augmented Reality) effects like filters, and stickers that add anything from color to the opportunity to ask your audience questions or do polls. Stories can be viewed by clicking on the avatars of the folks you follow at the top of the app.

Here, I show an example of myself using both the Filter and Sticker features in Instagram Stories.

Instagram Live: This features lets users broadcast video in real-time via Instagram stories. Instagram Live Stories are viewable only by your followers, but Instagram puts Live content in front of other content in stories, and this increases viewability.

IGTV: Instagram’s home for longer form content. IGTV content can be found by hitting the magnifying glass, then hitting the box with the tv icon and IGTV on it. When you create content for IGTV, you can also post it to your own IGTV “channel”, so all of your IGTV content can be found in the same place vs. having to dig through an account’s feed. You can also post a one-minute preview of your IGTV video to your feed by clicking on the “post preview” option right before you publish your IGTV video.

Here’s an example of an IGTV channel from Squarespace.

Which brings us to Reels, Instagram’s newest “surface”.

Reels: Instagram launched this feature on August 5, 2020. In their words, it’s “a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos on Instagram.” Some of the features of Reels include:

• Audio: Users can use other creator’s sounds or music behind their video. Note that business account users are unable to use music for copyright reasons.
• Augmented reality (AR) effects: Reels creators can use filters that alter their appearance, or that alter their environment.
• Short: Videos can be as short as 3 seconds or as long as 15 seconds. Some lucky users are able to extend their videos to 30 seconds as Instagram tests that option.
• Discoverable: Reels can be shared within an Instagram account’s main feed, their Stories, and they can be shared to Instagram’s Explore tab. We’ve recently witnessed Instagram even placing Reels within a new special section right in users’ Feed scroll, calling this section “Suggested Reels”.

Here’s an example from within my personal feed (account names blocked out for privacy). You can see that Instagram is interrupting the feed and inserting a new Suggested Reels section.

Reels’ discoverability is driving high engagement

Let’s focus on that last point — discoverability. As mentioned, users can share Reels directly to the Explore tab. Currently, Instagram has dedicated the entire top half of the Explore page to feature Reels.

There is no advertising support in this section (as of writing on 11/5/20). Additionally, hashtags can be used and are tracked, which of course increases the content’s discoverability.

Engagement rates are high

Over the last couple of months as we’ve encouraged our clients to use Reels, we are seeing engagement for clients at 3–10 times more than what they’ve seen when posting within their feed (and using roughly the same hashtag strategy).

Additionally, there are no ads currently in the Reels section of Instagram’s Explore feed.

The “a” word

There is one word that inevitably pops up in conversations about Instagram. Algorithm. The Instagram algorithm is the program that tells Instagram how, when, where and how often to serve up content to viewers. Many businesses complain that because of the algorithm, their content doesn’t get served up to their followers because of their designation as a Business account.

What I tell clients about the algorithm is this. Create great content that provides real benefit or assistance to your target audience, and they will see it. Create boring content, and the algorithm will do its job and not serve it up.

But, I digress. The reason I bring up the algorithm is that Instagram is a master at launching new features. Rumor has it, they push content that uses new features up in their algorithm to be viewed by more people so they can study how people are using the features.

Meaning, if you use Instagram’s new features, chances are, you’ll see higher engagement when you do.

Instagram is doing this with Reels in a couple of obvious ways. (Offering Reels with no ads, giving Reels lots of real estate within the app, and making Reels easily sharable to the Explore tab.)

And that’s why we’re recommending Reels to clients. Reels is giving content creators a new opportunity to widen their audience by making Reels content more discoverable. It’s a win/win. Consumers win because they see more of the kind of content they are interested in based on past content engagement, and content creators win because their content is more easily found by the consumers seeking it.

So, in a word, “discoverability” is the reason we recommend that our clients jump on the Reels feature. Higher discoverability means record views and engagement for our clients’ posts.

And, back to my metaphor, Reels is the more casual, fun type of content, so businesses feel that with Reels, they have permission to create less polished, more “in the moment” content without spending huge budgets on professional production and editing.

Curious about using Instagram Reels?

Here’s a guide from Instagram that shows businesses how to create, share, and watch Instagram Reels.

Looking for other content marketing tips or Instagram hacks?

Check out my Instagram account, @amandagregorymarketer, where I frequently share Instagram tips and other general marketing help.