In 2024, Instagram Reels still reign supreme when it comes to captivating and engaging your audience on Instagram. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about reels as well as provide you with some helpful tips and advice on how to make great reels! Ready to learn how to produce videos that truly resonate with your audience and stand out in the floods of content on Instagram? Let’s dive in!
The importance of a content strategy
Before diving into the technical aspects of creating a reel, it's essential to first understand the importance of having a solid strategy. A well-thought-out strategy sets goals and objectives to help shape your content and ensures that every reel you produce is aligned with these goals. For an in-depth exploration of creating a winning Instagram strategy, you can read our guide on “how to build an effective Instagram strategy in 2024” which provides a step-by-step guide and helps you to tailor your content to suit your audience's preferences. Our online strategy tool in rapidely can also help you with this step!
Creating the Perfect Instagram Reel
With a good strategy in place, the next step is to create content that resonates with your target audience. The art of making a good Instagram reel lies in its ability to engage, entertain or educate your audience in just a few seconds. Remember that users browse Instagram primarily for entertainment and are inundated with an abundance of videos that compete with yours. To find out how to create good content that stands out, discover our complete guide on “ A complete guide to creating great Instagram reels ”.
Here are our quick tips for creating a great Instagram reel!
- First, browse trending topics relating to your sector: stay up to date with the news and what you see on Instagram and always think about adding a unique and original touch to make your content stand out.
- Next, consider using high-quality visuals. It's important to invest in good lighting, have good equipment to record your audio and create clear graphics to make your reel visually pleasing and enjoyable to watch.
- Finally, be original with your ideas and concepts. You can use our tool which generates reels concepts for you with just a short prompt so you never run out of ideas.
Why a video rather than a photo?
In mid-2021, Instagram announced they were “no longer just a photo-sharing platform”. This transition focused mainly on short-form video content and the introduction of reels, to compete with TikTok. Reels quickly gained popularity among content creators on the platform and became the number one way for people to increase visibility. Fast forward to 2024, and reels are still one of the best ways to get new eyes on your content and page. They give life to your business, make you more relatable and bring your content to life. But to ensure they make an impact, you have to follow Instagram's recommended video formats.
The correct dimensions for an Instagram Reel
Reels are designed to be 9:16 ratio (or 1080x1920 pixels), and when you create it, you have the option to add a cover image, useful for maintaining the aesthetic of your feed and keeping it on brand. You can use tools like CapCut & InShot to edit your videos or you can simply use Instagram itself. Their editor has improved in recent months with more editing tools and capabilities added. Instagram also offers “templates” where you simply have to add your clips to a template someone else has created, saving you loads of time & effort.
Instagram recently announced they are testing the possibility of creating a reel “carousel” format, with several video slides, similar to the feature TikTok already has in place.
The optimal reel length
An Instagram reel can be up to 90 seconds in length but it's up to you to select the length of your reel depending on your audiences preferences. More often than not, shorter reels (under 10s) perform better and capture the attention on the platform. The key is to grab attention within the first few seconds and then convey your message in a concise and captivating way. People’s attention spans on platforms like Instagram are short so optimizing every moment of your video can be a game-changer. Use high-quality video & image content and keep any colors and text clear and on-brand.
Choosing the right audio for your reel
Yes, on-point visuals are imperative when it comes to creating a great reel, but audio is just as important! Select an audio that compliments the message you are trying to convey and your brand. Using a trending audio for an Instagram reel has several benefits that can contribute to its success:
- Increased visibility: Instagram favors content that uses popular audio because it matches current trends. A reel with trending audio is therefore more likely to appear in user recommendations and explore pages, increasing its reach.
- Audience Engagement: Trending audios capture users' attention and can trigger an emotional or even nostalgic response. It encourages viewers to interact with the content by liking, commenting or sharing, which increases engagement.
- Cultural connection: Using popular audio allows the creator to connect with their audience through shared cultural references. It can create a sense of belonging making content more relevant to viewers.
- Creativity and originality: Audios can be interpreted in different ways by different people so one audio can be used in very different ways! This provides an opportunity to stand out if you can be super creative and original! Users are attracted to original approaches that use a trending audio.
- Participation in challenges: Often, popular audios are linked to specific trends or challenges on Instagram. Participating in these trends can significantly increase the visibility of a reel and encourage interaction from your community.
- Algorithm optimization: Instagram's algorithm tends to favor content that uses viral elements, including audio.
It can be super beneficial to integrate popular audios into an Instagram reel to increase your visibility, engage your audience and be culturally relevant on the platform. Every week in rapidely, our team gives you all of the most recent trending audios, alongside ideas on how to use them (whilst being original!).
Here are some tips to help you select the right audio:
Tip 1: Use audio that hasn't been used more than ten thousand times. This way, you will not be lost in a sea of reels that have already used that audio.
Tip 2: when you search for your audios, look for the small upward arrow. This means that audio has been recognized by Instagram as trending! You can also click on the arrow to discover even more trending audios.
Tip 3: Watch the bank of reels created with that audio to see where the trend started and to give yourself inspiration.
Tip 4: don’t forget to go to rapidely to find all the popular audios that work on Instagram!
Schedule your Instagram reels in advance
Plan your Instagram Reels in advance with tools like rapidely! Scheduling is a foolproof strategy to optimize your time and increase your efficiency. Doing this not only relieves the stress of posting at just the right time but also ensures that each reel aligns with your overall content strategy. It also helps you maintain a consistent presence on the platform, which is super important for nurturing and keeping the attention of your audience. Scheduling your reels in advance just makes sense and gives you greater peace of mind, better content quality and a flawless posting strategy.
Analyze your Instagram reel analytics
Don’t forget to track and analyze your reel analytics to optimize your future content. Instagram offers a wealth of stats to tell you about your reel performance and can guide you in fine-tuning your content strategy. You can track metrics like total watch time, reach, replays and the number of plays of your reel. For a complete guide to analyzing all your stats, read our dedicated guide here.
In short, to create great Instagram reels that perform well, you must be creative, think strategically and always keep your target market in mind. To ensure you never run out of inspiration, check out rapidely. Our platform is the only tool that helps you to generate a whole custom strategy alongside a month of content ideas each month, as well as all the latest trending audios & story ideas tailored to your business. Try it out for free here.
