A side hustle can live or die by the way it engages with social media channels and platforms.
After all, for a business to grow you have to meet people where they are. But just making an account and posting away won’t do you much good. You have to know what type of content people AND the platform you are using want.
Take my experience with Instagram, for example.
The first time I tried making an effective Instagram account for a side hustle, I found that I wasn’t getting a lot of engagement even when I followed all the best practices I knew.
The reason? I wasn’t following Instagram’s game. You see, for your account to really take off you have to play along with the IG algorithm.
And it’s not just about Instagram. Outside of getting lucky with a viral post or video, you need to understand how a platform works in order for your projects to take off. And part of that is using the features they want you to use.
And for Instagram, that’s their famous reels. Once you start getting in on the reel game, you’ll see exactly how effective they can be!
That’s why this week, we’ll go over why and how you should make Instagram Reels.
This week’s newsletter brings you:
- Trends. Wondering what’s the latest buzz in the Instagram Reel sphere? Just take a look at our data to learn the latest social media trends.
- Strategies. This week we’ll discuss why Instagram Reels are so big right now, as well as what makes a reel effective, how to make one, and great examples of successful Instagram reels.
- Tool of the Week. To take your reel to the next level, you need to use the right tool, and that tool is Canva.
But let’s cut to the chase and see how Instagram Reels can power up your hustle!
Trends
To determine whether or not Instagram Reels are right for your marketing strategy, we’ve done some research into the potential audience and search interest of reels compared to other Instagram advertising alternatives. Enjoy!
Stories Vs Reels
As this graph outlines, Google search interest in Instagram reels overtook Instagram Stories in the last quarter of 2021. That trend has only continued to grow, while Google search interest in Instagram stories has more or less plateaued.
Potential Audience for Instagram Ads
But here’s where things get interesting. The number of people who can be reached via paid Instagram ads is still markedly higher for Instagram stories over reels (as of January 2022 at least).
Potential Audience for Instagram Ads by Gender
Now let’s take a look at the percentage of Instagram audience by gender. As this graph outlines, a higher percentage of males are more likely to engage with Instagram ads on reels. If you’re product is specifically geared towards males, reels may be the best advertising strategy for you.
Top Instagram Reels Markets by Country
With 327 million Instagram users, India is the biggest market for Instagram Reels, followed by The United States (169 million) and Brazil (133 million).
The reason India has a huge amount of Reel engagement is due to a couple of things, firstly its vast population and other being the ban of TikTok in 2020. India, with such a high internet-using audience, doesn’t have access to TikTok, which makes Instagram Reels a huge thing in the country. The only direct competitor is Youtube Shorts.
Strategies
Now that we got the numbers out of the way, it’s time we sat down and talked about how real side hustlers and brands use Instagram Reels for Marketing.
Why Instagram Reels are so Important Right Now
There are a lot of benefits to using Instagram reels to promote your side hustle. They have added visibility for one, but also are more shareable than stories.
The truth is that people love that kind of short-form video content, and it’s an excellent way to connect with the current and coming generations. Short videos made Vines popular. They made TikTok popular, and now Instagram and even Youtube are tagging along for the ride. Reels allow you to tap into that short-form content-loving crowd.
One perk that reels has over traditional content is discoverability, through the Explore feature. By sharing your reel in these spaces, it increases its visibility. At least when compared to stories, or regular posts.
Another reason to use reels is that they are proven to have far more engagement than the standard post. NBA teams, for example, have found 22% higher engagement with reels than other types of posts.
Also, a lot more people started to use Instagram after the Reels feature came along. In India, for example, Instagram downloads went from 7 million to 7.8 after the launch of reels. That’s an 11.4% increase.
An example of Instagram reels. Image by Instagram from Instagram Reels Blog Post
But the short version of why you need to be posting reels is that the Instagram algorithm is giving them a lot of love right now. In fact, Instagram head, Adam Mosseri, revealed that they will double down on video projects, like Reels, in 2024.
So if you are not getting into the reel game, you risk falling behind. Do you want your hustle to bustle? Ride the wave and shoot some reels.
The Elements of a High-Performing Reel
If you really want your reels to boost the success of your hustle, there are certain rules that you need to stick by. Making reels is much more than just shooting clips and splicing them together with some music or filters. You have to consider who the audience is, what is the purpose of the reel, and how the reel is going to achieve it.
Making the perfect reel. Image by June Aye from Pixabay
Make sure your reel has the following:
- Trending Audio: A great reel will make use of current trends as leverage to grow faster. Check out which music is popular at the moment and include it in your reel. But make sure that the music fits the context, or it’ll look forced.
- Seamless transition: People love smooth videos. When editing your reel, take the time to ensure the transitions between clips work exactly how you need them to.
- Captions/Text: Accessibility is an excellent thing to add to any content. By adding captions, you allow anyone to enjoy your reels even without audio.
- Entertaining and/or educational content: People like reels that bring value to their lives. Share tips or give them tutorials and they’ll keep coming for more.
A great reel should also…
- Draw attention fast: Reels are very short, but even so, a lot of people won’t stick around if you don’t draw them in right away. Make sure your reel starts with an attention grabber.
- Tell a story: People stick with a reel because they want to know what happens. When drafting your storyboard, make sure your reel feels like it’s a story with a beginning and an end.
- Inspire others: Challenges are one of the hottest trends in social media. By doing something that people could easily imitate, your reel can become popular on its own.
- Be relatable: A reel works better when people can connect with it. Make sure your reel is relevant to the context, but also to your audience.
How to Create an Instagram Reel
Making an Instagram reel is a pretty straightforward process. You can easily make an appealing reel in just a few minutes with Instagram’s reel maker.
Start by creating a storyboard that allows you to visualize how your Reel is going to go.
Once you get that out of the way, it’ll be time to actually make your reel. On the upper-right corner of Instagram, you’ll find a small square button with a + sign inside. This is where you add new content to your profile. Hit it and select “Reel”.
For your reel, you’ll have the option of using a series of clips, one continuous video, or uploading an external video made with other tools. If you want to try out that last option, just hit the blue + sign on the lower-left corner of your screen. But if you are doing things internally, hit the recording circle in the lower mid-section of the camera.
Before you shoot your reel, you have a few options that you can alter on the left sidebar:
- The first option allows you to select a song to feature on the reel. You can select specifically which part of the song to use by dragging along the bar at the bottom of the screen.
- The second option allows you to change the duration of the reel, in case you want it to be shorter than the max.
- The third option is to choose the speed of the video, which is normal (1x) by default. You can speed it up (2x, 3x, or 4x), or slow it down (.5x or .3x)
- The fifth and final option allows you to add a timer to your reel, so it starts shooting when you need it to.
If you already have shot a clip, you’ll get another option in the left sidebar to splice your clip into a new one to align them.
The Instagram Reel Maker Options
Once you are done recording the clip and have one that works for you, you can go ahead with editing it further through effects and filters.
You can do all of this by hitting the preview button after recording, which allows you to edit the reel before posting it. Once you’ve finished editing the reel, all you have to do is hit “Next”, select the share options, add a caption, and hit share!
Examples of the BEST Instagram Reels from Small Brands
There are a lot of cool things being done by brands to grow their hustle through reels. Let’s take a look at five of them:
#1. Skill Share
A teaser can be really effective to draw attention to an upcoming product launch or project. It’s about getting people interested in what’s coming, and that’s something that Skill Share understands well. They like to provide short teasers of their upcoming classes through Instagram reels. They also add captions to their reels to make them more accessible for everyone. Check out one of their reel teasers here.
#2. Anima Iris
Teasers are not the only thing people love. They also like getting an inside look into how your business works or any projects that you are working on. This helps humanize your brands and connect with people more effectively. Anima Iris does this by giving users insight into how their product shots are done. If you are curious go here to see one of their reels in action.
#3. People’s Revolt
A really good way to humanize your business is to introduce yourself, or your team, through a short video. This is something that People’s Revolt understands really well. In just 15 seconds, they are able to provide a lot of critical information about their business in a quirky and fun way. See how they do it here.
#4. Sassy Woof
Speaking about introducing your followers to your brand, what better way to do so than by spoofing classic sitcoms or show intros? That’s what Sassy Woof did in this cool Instagram reel. You get to meet the whole team and their adorable pups. What more can you ask for?
#5. Oliver Wong
Ok, Oliver Wong isn’t exactly small, but he definitely knows how to play the Instagram reel game. He uses slow-motion and hyper-lapse to create some really inspiring videos, and some of his most popular reels are actually hyper-lapse tutorials. A neat technique that Oliver uses in his videos is scroll-stopping text, which means people can still use their tutorials even with the audio off. Check out one of his reel tutorials here.
Tool of the Week
There’s more to making a great reel than understanding how to make one. You also have to make sure you are using the best tools for the business. Sure, Instagram’s native reel tool is pretty handy, but you’ll be limited in what you can do.
Canva is a graphic design platform that allows you to make just about anything design-related. With Canva, you can easily make infographics, Pinterest graphics, social media posts, brand logos, posters, and even videos. This makes it excellent for Instagram Reels. It has a simple to use drag-and-drop functionality and comes bundled with thousands of free templates ready to fire up.
While you can use Canva for free, they also offer a paid Pro service that costs $12.99 a month or $119.99 yearly.
So, what are you waiting for? Head on to Canva’s website, or download their app from the Google Play App Store or Apple App store, to get your reel-making game going.