Rise with Reels: How to utilise the power of Instagram for your business
Your audience’s attention span is only getting shorter and shorter, which is why you should learn how to harness the power of Instagram Reels.
Instagram isn’t going anywhere! In fact, it is just getting bigger and bigger. In order to utilise the platform best you need to understand that your audience wants more than just selling. They want to be inspired, educated, and entertained. One of the biggest mistakes you can do is try to sell too much!
Instagram Reels were introduced one year ago and have absolutely changed the way the platform works. Your audience’s attention span is only getting shorter and shorter, so, to get your message across before they swipe past, you need to grab their attention quickly and give them a reason to stick around.
And while you don’t need to be posting reels every day, nor posting to Instagram every day, you do need to be ensuring you’re being consistent and sharing content that your audience craves.
Share reels that make them want to watch it over and over again; tag and share with friends; and make them want to follow you so they can buy from you later.
Here are my do’s and don’ts of making reels for your business:
Do
Be time savvy
Utilise the first three seconds — these few seconds are key to making sure your audience doesn’t scroll past!
Create your own strategy
Your business is different to anyone else’s out there — so you need to ensure that your strategy is unique and based on yourself and your audience (not just what is working for everyone else!)
Keep it short
The shorter your reel is, the more likely your audience will watch it over and over again
Include a clear CTA
If you want conversions from your reels, you must include a clear call-to-action. Do you want sales, comments, follows, DMs? Make sure you tell your audience that! Otherwise, they are likely to just keep on scrolling past you
Clean your phone
Wipe the phone lens before filming — you’d be surprised at what a difference this can make in the quality of your reel
Include transitions
Include transitions to surprise and wow your audience. This will help to maintain their attention and keep them peeled on what you have to say
Stay on brand
Include your branding within your reels. Use your business colours with text within the reels, and stick to the same (or similar) fonts for consistent branding
Remember the ratios
Make sure to use the full screen space! The ratio for reels is 9:16
Build comments
Engage with the people who are engaging with you! When someone else comments, ensure you comment back with a genuine comment. Even add in a question to prompt them for another comment back
Include hashtags
Reels are so powerful to get more eyes on you and your content, so utilise hashtags at the end of your caption or in the first comment. Remember to always use hashtags that are relevant to the content you’re sharing!
Don’t
Use too much time
Don’t use more time, just because Instagram has extended the option to have reels up to 60 seconds long. Keep them short!
Overpost
Don’t post every day, just for the sake of posting every day. Quality over quantity always wins!
Include watermarks
Don’t include watermarks from third party apps like TikTok
Be tone deaf
Don’t use boring audio that doesn’t help communicate the message or emotion you’re aiming for. Keep it fun!
Play copycat
Don’t just rely on trends or do what every one else is doing. Be unique!
Cover your face
Don’t let the text cover your eyes or mouth (if possible!)
Go off centre
Don’t have the text appearing off to the edges — try to keep the text as centred as possible.
Be poorly lit
Using harsh/dark lighting will lower the quality of the reel and increase dark shadows
Stay static
Don’t just use images, as it is hard to make that engaging and instead will make it will be more like a slide show. That is not what reels were intended for!
Post and ghost
Don’t post and then ghost… before and after posting your reel, try and stay online and spend a bit of time engaging with others
With constant lockdowns, Instagram is your digital shopfront and, fortunately, it doesn’t close! This is the reliable shopfront you need to get you through the everchanging environment we’re living in.
If there has ever been the “right time” to get onto Instagram and really utilise the power of the platform, it’s right now!
