 Welcome to the journey. Today, we're going to give you a beginner's guide to Instagram reels. All right. If you haven't heard the news and this is coming from Instagram themselves, they're no longer a photo sharing app. Shocking. We know. The company now wants to start focusing more on video content as opposed to being the original square photo sharing app that they're known for being. So in case you didn't know, Instagram reels rolled out in late 2020 and there were accusations that they were copying TikTok with a short form vertical video content, but it has become increasingly more popular across Instagram users and Instagram is really favoring reels right now. So what are reels and why are they so important? Instagram is obviously a huge social media platform. They've got over 1 billion monthly users and if you are not active on Instagram, I don't really know what you're doing. But with reels, it's a great addition to IGTV, Instagram stories. It's just another way that you can create video content on Instagram. And like I said, it's become increasingly more popular. The Instagram algorithm is really pushing them out right now. And I know on my own Instagram account, I've got over, I've got three reels that have over a million views. So if you can start creating video content on Instagram, especially reels, that might help your brand. But how you do it, okay? It's not that complicated. You don't need another app. You can edit everything right on your phone. And they're starting to roll it out where you can now have up to 60 seconds worth of content within your reels. It used to be either 15 or 30 seconds, but all of the music you can find right on Instagram, you can do the editing there as well. And it's really easy. So I recommend that you get started. If your business is active on Instagram, and let's say you haven't posted a reel just yet, now is the time. Don't let lack of content inspiration hold you back. So here are some simple and effective video ideas starting with ooh, my favorite educational content. The best way to increase your reach and engagement is to give your viewers something valuable. Give them something to want to tune in because it's going to benefit their life in some way. And if you can create something that is helpful, users are more likely to like it and share it with their friends and also follow you, right? So they can get more of that great educational content. Which ultimately what that will do, it's going to tell the algorithm that your content is worth being promoted. So for example, you can create shareable workouts or cooking videos, which were huge for me during the pandemic, just by showing your step by step process. Another thing that I encourage everyday entrepreneurs is to showcase your products and or services. Even accounts who don't follow you can see your content on the explore page, which is why it's so important for brands to be active where their target audience is. Another great thing for you to post is original content. So think of your audience and what they would want to see from you. Now if you are a business and you can get user generated content so you can actually get content from your customers, that might be something that you want to share. You could do frequently asked questions or really whatever is relevant to your brand. But I know one of the things that I do, because if you want to be trending, if you want to go viral on Instagram reels, I just spend a couple of hours a week scrolling through the explore page of reels and I will see what our trending songs. So if you hear the same songs over and over again, you know that those are trending and you can easily just save them and recreate a reel that is your own, it's original, it's unique, but using that trending song and you have a better chance of actually getting picked up by Instagram. Now let's dive into how to optimize your reels. If you're already creating content on TikTok, guess what? I have a resourceful tip. You can reuse that for your reels. Love a good time saver. However, Instagram is not only clearly advising against reposting content that's visibly recycled from other apps, but it has also updated its algorithm to recognize and prevent it from performing well on their platform. For best results, try to record vertically, then edit and add effects to your reels from within the app, rather than uploading a video that you recorded elsewhere. It's also important to use text overlays, hashtags, audio and descriptive captions get creative to let Instagram add you to an algorithm relevant to the content. Those are all great tips, Emma. Something else that you might want to consider is actually including a call to action within your reels. Now, Instagram responds really well to engagement as does most social media platforms. So if you can get people to like your reels, if you can get people to share them, that's definitely going to help you out. Or if you want to lead to a conversion, if you're promoting something and you want someone to buy something, definitely make sure that you're including that call to action. Now, a couple of other tips that you might want to take into consideration, create custom thumbnails, or actually cover photos for your reels. Now, these won't appear on the explore page, but when someone clicks on your Instagram profile and let's say they're brand new and they don't know you, they don't really know what content they want to check out, having those custom images there will help with your branding and it helps people to navigate your page. Also, something that I do with all of my reels is I always share them to my Instagram stories. Now you have the option when you're creating your reels to share them on your feed and have them included within the main like front page of your Instagram profile. And I definitely recommend doing that because then it puts it on the people that are following you on Instagram, it puts it on their homepage. So they're more likely to see it. But also, when you share it on your Instagram stories, it hopefully reaches more people and it gets them to actually watch that reel. Finally, you'll need a way to know if your hard work is paying off. Instagram has included a dedicated tab, which is similar to the insights tab on your static posts and videos that details the metrics relating to your reels. And with the reels insights, business owners, this is pretty cool. They can see important metrics like accounts reached, plays, likes, comments, saves, and even shares. And by knowing what type of accounts you're reaching with your reels and which content formats are most engaging with your audience, very helpful stuff to know, you'll be able to adjust your content to better serve your target audience and grow your account. We can't stress enough the importance of video content. And like Emma said in the beginning, Instagram is no longer just a photo sharing platform. So you need to be creating videos. But one thing you definitely want to keep in mind is you don't want every video to be an advertisement. Every reel, you want to make sure that you have a purpose behind it, whether it is a call to action and you want to get someone to complete a sale, or if it's just something that you know your audience is going to love. So really take that into consideration and make sure that you've got a good mix when you are creating those reels. Love it, Catherine. And that's a wrap. But the journey doesn't have to end here. We have over 200 videos for you to watch. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. Thanks for watching. This is The Journey.