Since Instagram Reels were introduced last August, I have really loved creating short videos. I was never really into creating videos besides montages and talking on Instagram stories so I was super skeptical about reels at first. Now, a year later, I am constantly coming up with new ideas and have so much fun creating these... sometimes more than regular IG posts!!
I have had a few reels hit 100K+ views and I wanted to share my best tips for reels with you. They're still so new and a little hard to navigate so I want to share what I've learned with you! Now, I will say that I obviously don't know for certain what determines if a reel goes viral or not. But certain things definitely help make a reel get seen by lots of people!!
Here are my 5 best tips for creating scroll-stopping reels:
Fast-Paced. I try to keep all my clips short in my reels because this is what encourages viewers to watch again. When people watch your video over and over again it increases the views (makes sense) and tells Instagram that this is a good reel that needs to be shown to more people. I keep each individual clip under 2 seconds in my reels but try to keep it around 1.5 seconds. When I post videos including photos, I keep the photos at 0.8 seconds so viewers aren't getting bored staring at each photo for too long! Example: Welcome to my Disney Life.
Utilize The Caption. In reels, you can write as long of a caption as you can for an Instagram post. I love restating tips for whatever I showed in the video and then including even more content in the caption. Not everyone will read it but I love to use it just in case some people don't like watching videos and prefer reading information instead of watching. I also include a question in the caption for people to respond to and hashtags for my reel to be found in. Example: 10 MK Photo Locations.
Using Well-Known Music. Adding music can be super difficult because I don't like adding overplayed music or music that could be seen as annoying to some people. I love using Disney type sounds that are either covers or remixes just because my audience loves Disney and I know they'll enjoy that. Example: Disney During The Pandemic
Adding text. I love adding text to my clips because not everyone reads the captions on reels. At the very beginning of my reels I typically include the main idea of the reel and then will include sub headings throughout the reel. It makes it much easier to follow along and encourages people to watch (instead of scroll past) since they know what to expect in the video. Example: My Disney College Program Costumes.
Sharing Educational/Inspiring Content. Whenever I share tips or ideas, those reels always do so well because it's the type of content that people go back to and will watch frequently. Example: Monorail Bar Crawl.
Again, these are just what I have found to be the common factors in helping a reel get lots of traction to get 100K+ views! Let me know if you agree with any of these or if you have other tips!! If you try out any of these, I'd love to know how they work out for you!! Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you in my next post :)
See ya real soon,
Danielle
