To begin with, I felt this huge enthusiasm for Reels and I thought I had found my feet. I began to share behind-the-scenes clips and how-to videos and for a while, I thought this is what I would share. In fact, it wasn’t until Spring this year I shifted my focus back to those beautiful videos I used to create. Videos that didn’t feature pointing, dancing, or being silly. But videos that had real life moments, beautiful light and colour, and videos that felt very much like me and the photographic style I produce. I do now share behind the scenes clips too but I now do it in a way that feels authentic to me.
So I went for it. I broke the rules, I didn’t follow the crowd and while my videos probably won’t go viral and rake in thousands of followers, they are made from my creative heart. They are enjoyed by others and they are just content that makes me feel good.
When it comes to the technical side of creating reels here is what you need to know:
Video clips can be up to 60 seconds.
You can use images and videos on the Reel creator but truthfully I prefer to use other apps like YouCut Pro.
You can add fonts over the images and use the timeline at the bottom to control how long the text stays on the screen. You can have it disappear after a while or it can stay on the screen the whole time. It’s totally up to you.
You have access to thousands of songs to use. But be careful with what you choose some songs are not available to use in certain countries. You are best to use trending songs and you can find them by scrolling the Reels rection of the Instagram app and where you see the arrow next to the song title, this means the track is currently trending.
You can use 30 hashtags as normal in reels. There are some rumors that putting them in the caption helps to increase reach, however, over the last few months have tried a combination of using 0 hashtags, hashtags in the caption, and hashtags in the comments, and truthfully there is no better way. Reels are so hit and miss with insights!
Creating Content:
When it comes to creating content that is all up to you. If it’s a personal account you could share family moments or days out etc. You could do this rough and ready or take candid clips and share in a beautiful way. There are no rules. Just create what makes you happy.
You could follow trends of what’s going viral if that suits you and your account. Personally, I stay clear of those, but that’s down to me and my content.
If you are a business you should be showcasing your products. You could do this with quick and clever Reels. Ones that involve lots of transformations, following trends, etc. Or, you could become a storyteller, creating videos about why you created the product or make magic with creative videos.
I guess the main takeaway from this post is that it’s down to you and your personal taste and style. If you would like to learn more about creating videos I have an e-course right here, that included coaching calls where we can discuss how to create videos for your business.
