People never get bored of scrolling through Reels, and this is what makes them the perfect tool to reach your audience. Reels have become so immensely popular that you have the “Reel” button right in the centre of your IG screen! There are so many creators out there, which means that you might have some competition. But, this doesn’t mean that you should stop creating content.
Whether you are creating reels for your small business or you simply like to create travel reels, wouldn’t you love it if your Reel blew up? If you don’t know where to start, that’s what Kool Kanya’s course - 'Go viral and get 2X engagement on your Reels' is just what you need to get started.
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Topics to make your reels go viral
Do not fret about competition as there are some incredible hacks that can help your Reels go viral.
- Pick a niche and stick to it
If you are a content creator, it’s vital that you choose a niche and stick to it. Don’t go about creating Reels on everything and anything. A sure way of gaining more followers and going viral on Instagram is to find a theme or category and post about it regularly without missing a day.
Since Instagram's algorithm makes use of machine learning, it shows your posts to an audience that’s totally into the content you will be posting about. So, when you finally find your niche and start building content around it, make sure that you stick to it and stay consistent.
2. Share the Reel on your feed as well
Of course, people can discover your reels in their explore section, but do you know what will make it easier to get more likes and engage more audience? Sharing it on your feed as well. So, when you post your Reel, ensure that you select “also share to feed”, and this will push the content to your followers through your regular feed as well as the Reels one.
And do you know what this means? It gives you a higher chance of getting noticed on the Explore page and cranks up your follower’s views likes, comments, and shares number. This is extremely vital to the algorithm that decides what ta post on Explore.
Since Instagram is prioritising Reels content at the moment, this gives you a better opportunity to become visible compared to those who just post on the Reels feed.
And you get to reach more people who aren’t currently following you, as well as those that already are.
3. Place a hook
The hook here stands for the part of the video which will spark interest in viewers and mostly revolves around something that you’ve done or said something which is shocking or exciting.
You would be scrolling through hundreds of videos per day, and you’d notice the ones that catch your attention have something that draws you to them and keeps you hooked. This would be defined as the hook to your video. Your audience has to know within the first few seconds if the video is worth watching. Since our attention spans aren’t all that great these days, it’s easier to declare interesting content as bland if there’s nothing grabbing their attention. So if you want people to stick around for the entirety of any video you post, structure your videos so it starts with the hook, and begins the video from that very point. Once you pull them in, they will watch the rest of your content.
4. Add text in the middle and the beginning
Instagram Reels videos pop up on your feeds without sound when you are scrolling, but if you follow the practice of adding headlines and subtitles to your reels as it works on IGTV, you might get more people to put the sound on.
Since you are working with Reels, add text directly in the middle area that sums up the value or purpose of the video so that when someone scrolls the feed, all videos are usually without sound. By placing the text in the middle, you are sending information to the viewer what the video is all about, so they turn the sound on and watch it.
You can put these overlays to good use while working with Reels by telling a story with texts and videos/images. This makes it easier for the viewer to absorb the information and there’s a higher chance they will stay to the end or even watch it again.
Remember that you are acquiring a lot of information through video and text. So, by adding the text you are also increasing the chances of your viewers finishing the video and spending more time on the content that the algorithm loves to death.
5. Pay attention to the size of the video
You might have some sizing issues with Instagram. Don’t you remember how long it took for people to understand the IGTV to feed sizing and the issues this brought, and now you have Reels to deal with.
Just like IGTV, the format for Reels is different from that of the feed. So, what does this mean? When people view your Reels in the feed, they will see only 4:5 size of the 9:16 full-screen Reels format. So if you have spread the text overlay outside of the 4:5 zone, people will not be able to see this on their feed as it’ll be cut off till they open it full screen.
Ensure that you keep this in mind when you start creating your Reels themes and how exactly you want them to appear. Also, do not forget to keep all the main parts of the video as well as text/image overlays within a 4:5 ratio sized area directly in the middle.
There are no foolproof ways to make your Reels go viral, but with expert hacks, tips, and strategies you sure can help make your content reach the right audience. Register for the Kool Kanya course - 'Go viral and get 2X engagement on your Reels' right away to get started!
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