Keep reading to know more ways that brands can leverage Instagram reels.
3. Instagram will push brands who jump straight on Instagram Reels’ new features
We all know that social media is not just about appealing to your current following however it’s also about expanding your reach and growing. It became clear from the inception of Reels that they may push content from brands who make use of all the new features that the platform offers. We discovered that creators who jump on Instagram reels and use its tools and features have been rewarded with visibility at the top of Discover Pages.
Example
Instagram Reels provides many great in-app features, including a plethora of music. Take Junesixtyfive’s content, which often makes use of Instagram Reels’ music library. In this video of her day at the beach, Junesixtyfive makes use of Billie Eilish’s song, ‘ilomilo’ in a series of short clips that have been made into a reel. In the video, Junesixtyfive shows off her favorite summer looks and the song matches in completely with the kind of short-form content material she makes.
This video brought in 284K views and get a number of 15K likes and 186 comments. Since then, Junesixtyfive has continued to use trending songs in her content and the content has consistently done effectively. The consumer’s most regular post with the soundtrack ‘Go Go Go Who’s Nxt’ by hiphopharrytv, accumulated 31.8M views, 358K likes, and 1913 comments.
This rise in views and engagement with her post comes from Junesixtyfive’s content being pushed and therefore discovered by more Instagram users. It is a great incentive for brands to keep on top of as new offerings as possible. By implementing this into your brand’s Instagram Reels strategy, you will not only be an innovator however will improve your visibility on this platform.
4. Informational content is a good place to start
In the midst of all of Instagram Reels’ exciting features, it is necessary not to forget the most important aspect of creating short-form content – keeping the product as the secondary focus of the video. When appealing to your audience with short, authentic, and informational content, keep in mind that you are not making a traditional advertisement where the product is the central focus.
What you want to achieve is an immensely entertaining video that does an incredible job at subtly promoting your product. Showcasing products is a good idea however brands should do this by jumping onto trends and creating content that is more focused on the Reels effects and the innovation and creativity of the content rather than the product itself.
An effective way to forgo this is by creating content on things you already know and are experts on and sharing that with your audience. Use Instagram Reels’ tools to show your knowledge and truly inform the viewer. This could be anything from ‘5 ways to wear a plain white shirt’ to ‘3 ways to eat a potato’.
Owning a niche is how we saw plenty of TikTok creators blow up within mere months so doing these kinds of videos and owning that niche is an effective way to get noticed and claim that top spot. This is especially effective now since Instagram launched Reels.
Example
Take Kevinbparry’s IG Reels content as an example. Although Kevin is a stop-motion animator and his priority as a business is to sell his skills, he is not afraid of letting audience in on his animation secrets. Take this ‘how-to’ video where Kevinbparry lets viewers in on how he created an earlier video that reached 1.6M views.
It is clear from the view rely on that Instagram customers love this informational content. By letting customers in on how he creates his innovative and engaging videos, Kevin has gained consistent view counts and engagement, as users follow him to view more. This is a good example of why brands should put all inhibitions aside when creating content for short-form social media platforms and tap into the informational niche.
5. Growing your fanbase is about leveraging the discover page not engagement
To keep this fanbase growing, it is very important to truly understand how customers will be engaging with your Instagram Reels. On both TikTok and Instagram Reels, brands need to keep growing their fanbase, however, brands shouldn’t expect this to happen in the same method.
Because Instagram Reels is so new, with every video on the feature, Instagram will push it based on how much it has been watched and liked, rather than how much it is engaged with, which is the way it works on TikTok. Because customers are not as familiar with Instagram Reels, many customers won’t be sharing, commenting, and engaging with the content in the same method they do on other platforms.
Instead of engagement rating, Instagram will push videos that have a high watch and like counts to appear on random users’ Discover Pages. This is how the Instagram Reels algorithm works and you may see this as soon as you click this part of the app.
Example
If we have a look at the example of Allaboutbants, an influencer who has a strong following on both TikTok and Instagram, we can see how engagement for the same differ on both platforms. Allaboutbants has a strong TikTok presence of 2 million followers. His common views are around 80K on TikTok, with likes of around 20K and averaging 100 comments on his posts. On Instagram, however, Allaboutbants only has 110K followers however brings in 100K views, 3K likes, and averages 50 comments on his Instagram Reels posts.
This humorous video of a prankster balloon posted on both Allaboutbants’ Instagram Reels and TikTok pages, brought in 221.6K views on TikTok however a higher count of 235K views on Instagram Reels. However, the video only achieved 9,044 likes and 92 comments on Instagram Reels. It gained 38.1K likes and 212 comments on TikTok.
These stats tell us that although the engagement rate is much higher on TikTok, more customers have viewed the content on Instagram Reels. From this, we are able to determine that similar content is being pushed to more users on Instagram through the Discover Page. It gives brands greater visibility and more opportunity to gain followers on the platform.
All of this means brands shouldn’t be disheartened about engagement rating on Instagram Reels. The main aspect is view count and if this is consistently high, then your content is doing exactly what it should be.
Conclusion
To maintain appearing on users’ Discover Pages, you need to create informational or related content for your Instagram Reels audience. And you are making the perfect use of potential out of the platform’s latest features. These tips will put your brand in the best stead for growing following on Instagram using Reels.
We’ve created a marketing guide to Reels for brands to learn even more and start their own. Complete with strategy tips, content concepts, and exclusive insights, we’re giving you free access here.