When TikTok videos first started going viral, Instagram launched its own format for short-form vertical video fun, Instagram Reels. This type of video post gave users access to a suite of editing tools and a music library within the app to create engaging videos and let the creativity run wild.
The feature has quickly gained popularity. According to recent statistics, 2.35 billion people interact with Instagram Reels monthly, and Reels get 22% more interactions than standard video posts. “Reels also continue to become more social with people resharing Reels more than 2 billion times every day, doubling over the last six months,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reported to shareholders.
Yes, Instagram Reels are taking the world by storm, and savvy business marketers are jumping on the bandwagon to make good use of this video format.
In this post, we’re going to walk you through six steps on how to use Instagram Reels for business growth.
Let’s start with a few proven reasons for businesses to give Instagram Reels a try.
5 Reasons for Businesses to Create Instagram Reels
It’s no secret that Instagram Reels are the goldmine for content creators who want to show off their personality and creativity with video content. However, if you know how to use Reels the right way, this fast-growing Instagram feature can help to achieve business growth, too.
Here are five main reasons for businesses to create Instagram Reels.
1. Keep up with current trends
People prefer video content over plain photos or text, especially on Instagram. With built-in editing tools, you don’t need expensive video editing software to produce high-quality content. It’s also a great way to keep up with current trends and stay relevant to your customers.
2. Boost user engagement
Instagram users have an interest in video content, and people crave more videos from brands they support. When your company invests time and effort into creating Reels, it results in higher engagement as users are ready to support brands with likes, comments, and shares.
3. Diversify brand content in-app
Long gone are the days when brands could become popular on Instagram with over-polished content. Today, followers want to see authentic content from brands, so casual Stories or funny Reels give companies more options to diversify brand content and hook the target audience.
4. Reach a wider audience of potential followers
Reels is an answer to TikTok’s growing popularity, so Instagram makes sure to highlight Reels as one of its flagship features, boosting this content type in people’s newsfeeds. Moreover, Reels appear on the Explore page, which helps to reach more people with similar interests.
5. Leverage storytelling opportunities
Aside from getting you the results that you need, Instagram Reels also give you more ways to tell stories. As multi-clip videos with access to music and effects, Reels offer a perfect place to share better stories with your audience and engage viewers in meaningful conversations and attract leads.
6 Steps to creating standout Instagram reels
Now that you know about the importance of Reels for business growth, check out the following list of six steps for you to take when creating Instagram Reels that lead to business success.
1. Learn about Instagram Reels’s dimensions and sizes
To succeed in any social media platform, you must be familiar with its dimensions and size requirements. Ignoring the specifics can result in low-quality content—Instagram’s algorithm will never suggest unoptimized Reels to its users.
Of course, if you shoot and edit your video directly on Instagram, you’re assured that everything is optimized for the platform.
To upload your Reels at the highest quality, go to Settings and Privacy, Account, then Data Usage. Toggle on Upload at the highest quality.
If you don’t follow the prescribed dimensions and sizes, your Reels can either be cut, stretched, or pixelated, which isn’t just a bad look for your brand, but also a minus point from Instagram. Following the rules automatically ups your chances of going viral and reaching your desired audience.
Skincare brand Sunnies Face posts high-quality Reels that follow all of the app’s rules and specifications. All Reels by Sunnies Face get tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments.
2. Provide viewers with valuable Reel content
It’s no longer enough to post pretty photos on Instagram and expect followers to come streaming in. Instead, your audience expects content they can learn from, or at least entertain them.
As a brand, you want your customers to learn something new from your Reels, which can be in the form of how-tos, Q&As or behind-the-scenes content. Moreover, people crave educational content as it allows them to learn something valuable, so it’s one of the Instagram growth hacks that result in higher engagement.
Food media brand America’s Test Kitchen regularly posts how-to Reels on its Instagram page that teach home cooks how to improve their kitchen experiences.
How-to videos are especially valuable for brands that require technical application like appliances, tools, and even makeup.
The great thing about posting valuable content is that customers in various stages of their buyer’s journey can learn from them. Your content shouldn’t just sell, but also educate.
Household appliance company Dyson utilizes user-generated content as a form of Instagram marketing with its Reels. Dyson Airwrap users are encouraged to share how they style their hair using the popular multi-styler, ensuring that their Reels are relatable and engaging.
3. Experiment with eye-catching video effects
Visuals are everything on Instagram which is why using video filters and effects can turn an ordinary video into a viral sensation. Choosing a different filter can also drastically change how your viewers feel upon watching your video. You can either apply a filter to your entire video or add effects to specific timestamps to highlight certain moments.
There are tons of video editing apps that allow you to make professional-grade edits straight from your phone. You can watch videos on how to make a good video intro to make it more attractive. One simple way to give your videos a boost is by playing around with the lighting.
Various apps allow you to choose from a variety of video effects and accentuate the existing beams of light on your video. This adds sparkling effects to your video, making it appear whimsical and bright.
You can also use the “Shake” effect as a video transaction, or add a soft and nostalgic look with the “Bloom” video effect to make your Reels more appealing. For inspiration, check out Reels by fashion content creator Lê Hải Long:
Better known as @sayhailong, this content creator is not afraid to experiment with different filters and effects to make his content stand out. Thus, he used a combo of cutout tool, shake effect, and masking to create eye-catching Reels.
4. Team up with Instagram creators or influencers
With the popularity of influencer marketing, brands turn to influencers for many reasons.
Working with Instagram creators or influencers, not only can you get appealing Reels for your Instagram feed, but you can also enter an already-established community and therefore drive traffic to your website, expose your brand to a valuable audience, and so much more.
What’s best is that these professionals create content for a living, so they know what works best for your target audience. You can have them post Reels on their respective profiles and have a version of it on your page.
Clothing brand GAP partnered with Chef and food influencer Molly Baz to promote its new line. This partnership helped expose GAP to Molly’s global audience who are interested in the brands she supports and products she uses.
When working with creators, make good use of Instagram’s new Enhanced Tag feature to properly credit the creator or influencer on your Reel.
Did you know that restaurants can use Instagram Reels? What is more, restaurants can always turn to food bloggers who can review local restaurants with Reels and repost these videos to their feed, just like in the example below:
To find out the best influencer for your brand, you can also rely on Instagram tools to track influencer content performance.
5. Boost your best-performing Instagram Reels
While simply creating Reels can expose your content to an audience beyond your followers, relying on organic content alone can limit your brand’s performance on the platform. Boosting Reels that perform well organically is a surefire way to ensure that your target audience sees your content.
A little boost can help you reach your dream audience and get more inbound leads, while remaining within budget. Your Reels can appear on their main feeds, on the Explore page, and on the Reels tab.
Instagram collects 70% of available data from its users and uses machine learning to understand what type of content they should suggest to their users. This, combined by defining your target audience when boosting, can help your content to reach more of the right people.
Note: You are only allowed to boost Reels that are 60 seconds and below.
6. Check out Instagram Reels analytics and insights
As long as you have a business or creator account, you can access Instagram analytics and see each post’s metrics under the insights tab to view how they performed. This information is all available on your Instagram profile. You can also go to the specific Reel you want to view the metrics of and tap on View Insights. Your professional dashboard will also give you a brief summary of your profile and ad performance.
For a more complete overview of your Reels’s campaign analytics and insights, you can use Keyhole, which allows you to view all your Reels, Posts, and Stories data in a single dashboard.
Keyhole automatically collects data from your business profiles and exports them into report-ready charts. It’s also extremely valuable when you’re working with multiple influencers, as it can gather and compare each influencer’s performance in real time.
Knowing how your Reels perform can help you understand which Reel to boost and what type of content works best for your audience. Having real-time analytics also allows you to pivot and change direction when necessary.
Tip: You can also analyze your profile and optimise it further to boost its visibility and reach. Schedule unlimited posts with Keyhole and find out your best time to post your reels for maximum engagement and reach.
Final Words
The reason you should post more Reels is simple: it’s Instagram’s most popular feature today. Instagram Reels currently has 2.35 billion monthly active users (MAU)—that’s equal to the app’s MAU.
While a single organic photo post can remain in obscurity with nobody but your followers as its audience, a great Reel can help you go viral.
Instagram wants you to post more Reels and it’s for your own good—more reach, better engagement, and exposure promised.
Author Bio
Val Razo is a freelance SMM consultant who helps SMBs grow with the power of Instagram marketing. Val also writes for top-notch marketing blogs to share her experience with like-minded people. Get in touch with her on Twitter.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are Instagram Reels public?
As long as your account is public, your Reel will be public. This means anyone can see your Reels in their Explore feed, main feed, or Reels viewer even if they don’t follow you. Having a public Reel also means that anyone can use your original audio or text and Remix your Reel.
Note: You can turn off Remixing for all your Reels in your account settings or turn it off for specific videos.
2. What are Instagram Reels upload requirements?
Below are the Instagram Reels standard guidelines to take note of:
-Aspect Ratio - Between 1.91:1 and 9:16
-Frame Rate - Minimum of 30 frames per second
-Resolution - Minimum of 720 pixels
-Cover Photo Size - 420px by 654px or 1:1.55
3. What is the best time to post Instagram Reels?
The best time to post will depend on your industry and audience. But as a general guideline, it’s recommended to post anytime between 9am and 2pm. If you have a global audience, you will have to schedule your Reels during the time the majority of your audience wakes up.
Pro tip: Schedule Reels in advance to ensure they’re uploaded at the right time.
4. What is the difference between Instagram Reels and TikTok?
While these two social video types share a bunch of similarities, they also have a few differences that set them apart:
-TikTok creators have access to all the music and trending sounds on the platform, while Instagram business accounts are locked out of the music library due to copyright restrictions.
-TikTok’s current maximum video length is ten minutes, while Instagram has recently increased their maximum limit to 15 minutes.
-TikTok has a younger audience, with 25% of its users aged between 10-19 years old. Instagram’s biggest audience (31.7%) are aged between 25-34.
