Instagram Reels for a business or a brand can be a powerhouse for engagement, followers, sales, and other important metrics. In fact, it can be the “growth hack” that companies have been searching for from their marketing efforts. With Instagram Reels, Shop, IGTV, the traditional feed posts, and other elements of the app, can we take a moment of silence for this image of Instagram in 2013. 

Source: Reddit

As social media marketing continues to advance, here are the three hacks to utilize for Instagram Reels marketing to increase your presence! 

Instagram priotizes video 

Instagram has always been known as a photo-sharing social media app since the inception of Instagram, but in recent headlines, Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, has stated that Instagram is now a video-sharing app that will prioritize video content over photos. 

How does an algorithm work? An algorithm is what shows you content while scrolling through social media platforms like Instagram. This algorithm shows you new content based on accounts you already follow, previous engagement, and likes. Each part of Instagram’s different sections on the app uses its own algorithm to suggest the best content. 

Whether it is an Instagram story or a Reel, Instagram’s “classifiers” and “processes” take into consideration the content that consumers engage with on a daily basis to provide the best recommendations. 

Original content

Instagram has stated time and time again that it prioritizes original content shared from accounts. And with over a billion people utilizing the app, this means creativity and originality are necessary to see the results that companies, marketers, and personal brands are searching for. 

Original content is content that is specific to your consumers and target audience that they will want to engage with because more engagement means the better an Instagram post will perform on the app. This means A/B test everything until you find your niche. Then, you will find the content that hits the mark with your audience. Stick to this content and continue to grow on it over time. 

Whether you are a social media meme account or a cat account, learn from consumers and insights on what they are searching for and go from there. 

The next Instagram Reels marketing hack is the most important one. 

Remove the TikTok watermark

The similarity between Reels and TikTok, and Reels releasing months after TikTok’s rise to popularity, means that content creators and companies alike were repurposing that content from TikTok and simply posting it to Instagram Reels. 

Instagram released a statement that all watermarks from other apps will hurt a company or brand’s viewership within the Instagram app. 

The watermark is difficult to remove from the TikTok video once it has been posted, but this can be avoiding by editing and uploading the video onto software like Abode or Canva. This means the watermarks are only added after the video has been uploaded to TikTok and avoids this issue with Instagram. 

Share to other places on Instagram

Not only does using Reels help with prioritizing video content on user’s feeds, but Instagram prefers when you use all of their features available! This means sharing your Reels in the Feed, Stories, and even IGTVs if it makes sense.

This helps with content creation because it allows for one type of video to be posted in several different areas on the platform which means captions and hashtags can be switched out for each different post on the platform’s features. 

Have you noticed that a photo post is no longer performing like it once was? This can be due to several reasons, but as one marketer in a Facebook marketing group said, “Take the photo and make it a ‘video’ to see if your post performs better.” 

Are these three Instagram Reels marketing hacks what you have been needing? 

Social media marketing is never an easy task that takes a considerable amount of time and strategy behind each and every one of the posts or reels in this case. At a moment when companies have the opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of consumers, now is the time to capitalize on social media marketing. For more information, contact us today.