Need more Instagram followers and engagement on your Insta account? Then you may want to up your Instagram Reels game and learn how to make Reels on Instagram that really grab attention.
This fun and hugely popular feature has been around for almost two years and is now available in over 50 countries.
Recent statistics show content produced via Instagram Reels gets 22% more engagement than regular Instagram videos. So, keep reading to find out how to make Reels on Instagram like a pro.
What’s The Difference Between Instagram Reels And Video?
Instagram Reels are short, vertical videos that are either 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 60 seconds long (there are rumors that 90-second Reels are in the works). They are a great way to discover creators on Instagram, and for them to discover you. You can add music, effects, and voiceovers to the clips you record.
Instagram videos are well-suited for long-form clips that take a deep dive into topics. Reels, on the other hand, are better at quickly attracting viewers’ attention and are brilliant for creative, entertaining, and funny video clips. They are more effective in increasing your discoverability and reaching a wider audience.
How To Make Reels On Instagram
Before letting your creativity run wild, here are the steps on how to make Reels on Instagram:
- Access Reels. From the Reels tab, tap the camera icon. From your home screen, tap the + button and choose Reel. And from the Stories camera, at the bottom of the screen you will find the option to change from ‘Stories’ to ‘Reels’.
- Shoot the footage or upload external clips from your camera roll by tapping on the + in the bottom left corner of the screen.
- Add music by tapping on the audio icon and select the part of the song you want.
- You can then align the clips, reorder them, add effects, and more.
- Preview and share with a caption and relevant hashtags.
5 Ways To Make Reels On Instagram That Boost Engagement
If you’re new to Instagram Reels, here are some different ways to make Reels on Instagram that grab the attention of your followers and help you gain some new ones, too!
Convert An Instagram Story To Reels
This is a new feature and may not yet be available to all Instagram users. But once it is, it will be a great way of giving your Insta Stories a longer life and is the perfect way to repurpose content. It could well be an Instagram content creation game-changer.
Try it out by tapping on the Reel icon and navigating to the Supersync tab where you can quickly convert your Instagram Story to a Reel and post it.
You will be able to edit this new Reel just as you would an original one. That means removing or re-arrange clips, editing clip duration, adding content from your phone’s camera roll, tagging products, and selecting different audio tracks.
Make Reels With Dozens Of Photos
This is one of the most popular Instagram Reel trends right now for sharing experiences. Maybe you want to create a Reel with all the pics from your trip to a beautiful destination or one that shows photos of all of your products in action.
Instagram’s own editor allows you to add up to 10 photos and add music. But maybe you want to add a whole bunch more, in which case a third-party app is the way to go. Try the InShot App, available for both Apple and Android. It’s not free, but it is affordable and helps brands and influencers create awesome photo or video Reels in just a few steps.
Give the InShot App access to your camera roll, from where you choose which images to use. Tap the green check to add your photos. You will want to remove all the white space above and below each image. To do this, select the image and hit “canvas”, then “zoom”. If you choose “full”, the image will fill the entire screen, removing the white bars.
Lastly, export your new video and save it to your camera roll. Use Instagram’s music and text editing tools to add sound or captions. This ensures your Reel is favored by Instagram’s algorithm.
Create Transitions That Wow
Transitions are a fun and engaging way to move from one video clip to another. It’s also a great way to grab a scroller-by’s attention on Instagram. But they can be tricky to pull off.
You can use Instagram’s built-in transition options or you can use a third-party app to create more complex transitions.
Most Popular Reels Transitions
- Warp effect
- Spin effect
- Zoom effect
- Scan effect
- Selfie-Skit effect
- Duplicate effect
- Tiny Army effect
- Freeze Frame effect
- Voice effect
- Body Frame effect
But things have moved on from these basics and to up your game, we suggest you use a professional video editing app. The Splice App is one of our favorites. It offers users a number of more sophisticated transition options, such as swipe across, fade-to-black, crossfade, and blur. They also have a feature to make keyframe transitions super smooth through meticulous precision transitioning.
Use Trending Music
Few features are as powerful as adding a song or remix that is hitting the charts or is back in fashion. When creating your Reel, look for songs on the platform that are trending and are likely to go viral online.
You can then participate in the various trends accompanying the songs or use them creatively in your own way. By adding trending music to your Reel, you are instantly more discoverable on Instagram.
To find trending music, check the Explore Page and see if you can find any new Reels trends. You can also check Instagram Story Music as it recommends songs that are currently popular.
Add Meaningful Hashtags
Hashtags make it so much easier for other users to find and follow you on Instagram, and they’re essential on Reels. When you use carefully chosen hashtags, you attract followers who are actually relevant to your brand or account – not just all kinds of random people.
People with similar interests to you are more likely to remain followers, engage with your content, and, if you’re selling something, buy your product or service.
Niche, targeted or brand-specific hashtags are also useful to help you group content according to a specific product, or campaign.
Adding hashtags in Instagram Reels is super easy with the captions tool. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap/click to find hashtags suggested by Instagram. Or, search for them using the search function.
While most users add between one and three hashtags per post, nothing is stopping you from using up to 11.
Other than trending hashtags, these are must-haves:
- Day of the week, eg. #MondayMotivation
- Niche hashtags, eg. #yogablogger
- Service or product hashtags, eg. #photography
- Location hashtags, eg. #chicagoeats
- Special events or days hashtags, eg. #nationalwineday
- Branded hashtags that you create yourself. Add them to your bio as well as all content, including Reels. They may take a while to catch on, but if they do, others will start using them too and that’s a real win.
Ready To Create Epic Reels On Instagram?
With these new features and a couple of external apps, you are up to date on how to make Reels on Instagram that become memorable and help you grow your brand.
Give them a try and let us know how they worked for you!
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