Instagram Reel Basics for Business
We’re facing all our fears today with this REEL-y cool lesson. 😎
The number one thing I hear from business owners is that they know that reels are an important part of social marketing, but they just have no idea how to navigate that realm.
Yeah. It’s overwhelming. You’re a business owner, not a video editor.
Thankfully, Instagram knows that too. Slowly, they’ve been making their reel creation game simpler and simpler so that it’s more accessible for video editing beginners.
To edit a reel there are many steps and many options, so we’re going to break it down into baby steps.
Today we’re starting with what a reel is, why we need them, and what types of reels you should be using to knock your Instagram marketing out of the park!
What is an Instagram Reel? 🎥
An Instagram reel is a short-form video feature on Instagram that was created to compete with Tik Tok.
Reels have become immensely popular over the last three years and continue to be the best way to get your content out to new audiences on Instagram.
Why should I use Instagram Reels to market my business? 🧐
Instagram reels are currently the backbone of Instagram Marketing.
Reels have the highest overall reach rate for types of content posted on Instagram. According to Social Insider, reels have an average reach rate of 20.59% while other forms of media on Instagram normally have a reach rate of 9-10%.
This means that currently, and for the last three years, reels are the best way to get your information out to a new audience.
While reels do a great job at putting your information out there, you want to make sure you are creating reels that are optimized for SEO and aesthetically pleasing so that your reach can be even higher.
We will be going over all the do’s and donts this week!
What are common types of Instagram Reels? 🎥
Businesses use reels to reach different audiences and goals, but there are a handful of common trends and reel types that we’ve seen rise in popularity over the last year.
POV: You’re…": This type of reel shows B-Roll of you doing an activity or something related to your business. It will include text over it that says “POV: You are [insert activity that you are doing in the B Roll footage or something related to your business. Here is an example from my page.
Photo slideshow: This type of reel is the simplest, but also one with the most common mistakes. This reel just consists of photos in a slideshow format. People often forget to resize their images so that there is no white space at the top and bottom of their images. We will go over this more in depth tomorrow!
Day in the Life: This video takes short video shots from your day and compiles them with text to show your follower base what it looks like to do what you do. It helps your audience better connect with what you do on a day-to-day basis. Here is an example from my page.
Talking head: These videos are often the most intimidating. They consist of you talking to your camera and sharing your expertise or knowledge. These videos often take the most amount of editing time (cutting out dead space between sentences, adding captions, etc.). These reels are fantastic for educating your audience on how to fix problems they are encountering and building connection and trust with your audience.
How to find a trending sound on Instagram? 🎶
I’m sure you’re antsy to get started on creating your first Instagram reel masterpiece, but we’re going to pump the breaks a bit.
There are a lot more steps to Instagram reel editing than editing other types of posts. That means that there are so many more tips and tricks that I’m going to share with you. For that reason, we’re going to learn how to create reels over multiple days.
Today we’re going over the first step: Finding a trending sound.
Head on over to your Reel feed.
2. Swipe through the reels until you find a sound that you like that has a small arrow next to the name of the sound. See image.
3. Then press the small box on the bottom right side of the screen. This will bring you to the audio’s page.
4. Once you’re at the audio’s page, click the save button. This will save the sound to your saved audio’s album. We will be able to access it once we start editing sounds.
Your Challenge: Save a trending sound! 🔉
To complete today’s challenge, scroll through your Reel feed and save 5 different trending sounds that you want to use for your business.
If you have a little bit of extra time and energy on your hands, scroll through your reel feed or competitors page for inspiration on what kind of reels would work best for your business.
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You can upload a reel with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 9:16. Reels should have a minimum frame rate of 30 FPS (frames per second) and minimum resolution of 720 pixels.
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Reels can be up to 90 seconds long. If you have a video over that length, split it into multiple parts.
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When you use a trending audio it tells Instagram that the post is likely to perform well (because other posts with that sound have), meaning that the algorithm will show your Reel to more users, more often.
