Unlike Instagram Stories—which are a string of temporary videos meant to expire after a short period—and IGTV—which are long-form videos that can be edited and produced—Instagram reels are short-form videos that can live on your profile indefinitely. And while they can be presented as a series, each video stands alone in the feed.

Instagram Reels is the perfect place to share fun, behind-the-scenes glimpses into you and your brand, as well as casual, unrehearsed peeks at your products or services.

 

1. Keep Your Instagram Reels Looking Native

Instagram reels don’t quite work if they don’t look native. They should be recorded in portrait (or vertical) orientation using your smartphone’s full screen, rather than encased in a frame, squared off, or set horizontally.

Besides this, according to Instagram, a recent survey of its users revealed that those Instagram reels that had been repurposed or uploaded from sources outside of the Instagram app looked blurry and the watermarks placed on them from the other apps were distracting and made the overall user experience less enjoyable. So either record them inside the Instagram app itself or use a program that won’t leave a watermark on them.

2.      Pull Viewers in Immediately

As with video content on other channels, the first few seconds of your Instagram reel are the most important. You want to do or say something that stops the viewer and immediately pulls them in and gets them to watch more. This might be a flashing piece of text or a sticker along the top edge.

3.   Create Valuable Content

 

Content is King, and it’s the most essential factor to help you grow on a platform like Instagram. You have to post the type of reels that delivers some kind of value to the viewers. Also, it highly depends on the niche you’re working. Find out which type of content performs best in your particular niche. Then, you can try to replicate it and add a few of your own points to it to make it look fresh. You can take ideas from already successful reels and make something like that from you. If the algorithm has boosted those content, there is a high chance that you will get the benefit, too, and you will end up getting more views on Instagram reels.

 

4.     Use Creative Edits and Transitions in Your Reels

You might think that 15 seconds is long enough for anyone to watch a video all the way through but humans have proven that 15 seconds can sometimes be too much time to invest in a boring video. Edits can be as simple as stopping and starting the recording to create a cut. A cut is a simple but abrupt transition from one scene to the next. It might be used to reposition yourself in the camera, record at a different angle, or zoom in on yourself or your subject. It does this in a way that’s abrupt and causes the eye to jump a bit. This slight jump helps keep eyes focused on the video itself, which keeps viewers engaged for longer.

 

 

5.   Post Reels Consistently

 

Consistency is one of the major factors to get better results with Instagram Reels. Reels is still a new feature for Instagram, and they are always keen to test more and more. So if you post regularly, then you might get the exposure from Instagram that you needed. Posting more reels is also very important. When you post more and more content, you have better chances to show up on the reels feed.

 

6.   track Instagram Reels analytics

 

To understand if your Reels are hitting the mark and engaging your audience, you should keep track of their performance. Instagram makes this easy — Business and Creator accounts can access Reels analytics in Instagram Insights.

Reels-specific performance metrics include:

• Accounts Reached. This metric tells you how many unique Instagram users saw your Reel at least once.
• This is the number of times your Reel has been played. It could be higher than the number of accounts reached, since some users may watch your Reel more than once.
• This metric tells you how many users liked your Reel.
• The number of comments on an individual Reel.
• The number of times your Reel was bookmarked.
• The number of times Instagram users shared your Reel to their story or sent it to another user.

In Insights, you can look up the performance of individual Reels as well as see how the format is contributing to the overall performance of your account.

 

7. Use Popular Sound Tracks

 

Instagram has a vast library of songs that users can use in their reels. But sometimes, a song becomes very popular, and many users make reels with that particular sound. If you make reels with these trending sounds, your chances of getting more views and engagement potentially increase. If you want to check whether a song is popular or not, you can do so by tapping on the song from the bottom of the video. The more videos it has, the better for you, and you get more views on Instagram reels.

8.   Add Relevant Hashtags 

 

hashtags can be an excellent method to get some organic views to your content. These hashtags tell the Instagram platform what the video is about and pins/tags the content to that hashtag. Hence, Instagram shows the content to the most relevant people, and you can get more views on Instagram reels. So, always make sure to add only relevant hashtags to your reels that correspond to your content. Also, remember to use the most popular hashtags that have over a million followers, and you are good to go. You can even use online Instagram Hashtag generator tools to generate the best-suited and trending hashtags.

 

9.     Create a Custom Reels Thumbnail to Drive Views From the Feed

When you create a new Instagram reel, you get an opportunity to choose a thumbnail—the still shot that will be seen on your profile. You can design a custom thumbnail that goes with the content you have in the Instagram reels. It should increase the viewer’s curiosity, but it doesn’t mean you have to do any clickbait. You can create a high-quality thumbnail through any platform, but we would recommend you to use Canva. After creating the thumbnail, you can add it through the Cover option while posting the Reels.

10. Respond to Your Audience

Of course, a conversation can’t be a one-way street. If your viewers are commenting on your Instagram reels, you’ll need to respond right away to keep the conversation going.

As you grow your Instagram presence, your ability to respond to every single comment will diminish over time. However, while you have the time, and as often as you can without putting undue pressure on yourself, go through the comments and respond to any from viewers.

Now that you know the tips and tricks to become reel-popular, what are you waiting for? Grab your phone and get reeling!