Chapter 13
IN THIS CHAPTER
Getting ready to create reels
Uploading videos
Editing your reel
Sharing your reel with others
Using Reels Insights
As mentioned in Chapter 12, the Instagram Reels feature was rolled out to keep up with TikTok’s rapidly growing audience. As such, much of the functionality of Instagram Reels is similar to TikTok. In this chapter, we go over how to gather ideas, upload and record reels, edit reels, and share them with your audience.
Crafting a well-produced reel that gets many views takes some planning. First, you need to know a little about the specs of reels, and then you need to plan what kind of content you’re going to have in your reels.
Reels are short-form video content, in full 9:16 portrait mode, and they can be up to 90 seconds long. When you create reels, you can
The way you create the reel depends on your intention. So the first step for gathering ideas for reels is to set your intentions. Are you doing them for fun, promoting your business, trying to become an influencer, sharing a hobby, or educating people?
Once you set your intention, start watching the accounts that have a similar intention and pay attention to what draws you in. Make a list of the attributes that attract you to that content, which may be things such as the following:
Think about how you can incorporate the things you like into a reel that is unique to you!
Recording and uploading reels is not unlike uploading other videos to Instagram. Here’s how to get started:
Make sure the setting at the bottom of the screen is set to Reel before you record.
To film a reel, you want to hold your phone vertically.
Change settings by tapping the appropriate icon located on the left side of the reels screen, as shown in Figure 13-1.
You have to select your settings before you record. Except for audio, you can’t go back and add or edit clips for the following features after you’ve recorded them:
Record your clip by tapping and holding down on the white circle button at the bottom of the screen.
You can record up to 90 seconds (if the 90-second button is chosen). As you record, a red line circles around the white camera button indicating your progress.
Add more than one clip by recording using the white button, letting go, and then pressing the white button again to record another clip.
You can shoot as many clips as you want as long as they total less than 90 seconds (or whichever time you selected). When you record multiple clips, you’ll notice breaks in the red circle indicating the start of each new clip as shown in Figure 13-2.
If you have previously recorded vertical video, you can also upload videos from your camera roll. The platform supports videos, images, or graphics. To access your camera roll, tap the square with the blue + sign in the lower-left corner of the screen (refer to Figure 13-2). Then tap the content you want to upload from the camera roll screen. If you upload a video longer than 90 seconds or longer than the amount of time left in your current reels video, the uploaded video is trimmed to the allowed time. Select the portion of the video to upload and tap the Add button in the upper-right corner of the screen to add it to your Reels creation. If you want to add several videos, repeat the steps and continue to click Add, you’ll see how much time is left in the progress bar around the white button (iPhone) or a progress bar across the top (Android).
There are many fun ways to edit and enhance your reels. You can add audio, trim your videos to show only certain parts of a video in a reel, add text, and include transitions between sections of the video.
Using trending audio that’s on the rise (versus overplayed) is a great way to get more views on your reel. There are a few ways you can find trending audio:
tokboard.com/
to find TikTok trending audio. (TikTok tends to take the lead on trending audio, and then it migrates over to Instagram days to weeks later, so the trendiest audio can often be found on TikTok first.) The site lists the top songs of the week on TikTok, along with the audio clip so you can listen to it right there. If you find an audio clip you like, take note of the name of it and then search for it under the Music Note when you create your next Reel.Once you’ve recorded or uploaded a video clip as a reel, you can easily trim your clips as needed:
When you’re finished, tap the clip that’s on screen to go back to your main screen or click on the All Clips button under your clip to go back and view all of them.
In the editing screen, you can also reorder multiple clips by tapping and holding on to them, then sliding them left or right, or delete the entire clip by tapping the Delete button.
Reels often include text to let users know what the reel is about. Follow these instructions to add text and synchronize the text to particular parts of the video:
A transition is an effect that helps you move from one scene to the next or grab someone’s attention. There are manual ways to create a transition, but the easiest way is to use one of the effects (filters) offered within reels. The effect will often direct you to do something, like move your ahead to trigger the transition effect.
Popular transition effects include the following:
Here’s how to access them:
When you have your reel the way you want it, you’re ready to share it with the world. At the bottom right of the reels screen (you will see Edit Clips at the bottom left), tap Next to access the New Reel screen, and then use these steps:
Recommend on Facebook: Tap the arrow to set whether the reel will also be shown on Facebook Reels. When the button is toggled to blue, the reel may be shown to users watching reels on Facebook.
If you’re not ready to share the post publicly, tap Save Draft at the bottom of the screen to save the video file so you can edit it later. To access a saved draft, open your Instagram profile and tap the Reels icon directly above the grid of posts. Any drafts you have will appear at the top left of your other draft thumbnails. Tap Drafts to see your available drafts. In the Reels Drafts screen, tap the thumbnail image for the video to access it.
To share your reel to Instagram Reels tap Share (see Figure 13-12).
If you’d also like to share the reel to your Instagram feed, make sure the Also Share to Feed option is toggled to blue; otherwise, it will only be shown in the reels feed and on your profile.
Sometimes two heads are better than one. Grab a friend, either close by or far away, to do a collaboration, also known as a “collab.” Instagrammers often collab from completely different places, each creating part of a reel and then splicing it together during the editing process. We discuss more about editing earlier in the chapter in the “Adding Finesse to Your Reels” section.
A collab is also used widely by influencers. The influencer may be the only person filming the reel, but they can tag another person or business by selecting the Tag People option on the New Reel screen (see Figure 13-13) to collaborate with them. Then select Invite Collaborator (see Figure 13-14) to send a notification to whom you’d like to collaborate. The person tagged gets a notification about the request for the collaboration, and if they accept, the reel gets shown on both accounts.
Remix is a video-editing feature that allows you to collab with another user to film reactionary reels that appear side by side with the original reel. You can remix any Instagram reel, as long as the original creator has enabled Remix access.
To allow others to remix your reel, do the following:
A newer feature that will surely be of interest to marketers and influencers is Reel Insights. You can now see how many views, likes, comments, shares, and saves happened on each reel. The insights also let you know how many accounts were reached by that reel. (See Figure 13-16.)
You can access Reels Insights by tapping on one of your Reels from your Reels profile tab, tapping the three dots on the lower right side of the screen, and then tapping Insights.