What's the Big Deal with Reels?
This is a special newsletter update for this week, June 17
I’m out this week but was lucky enough to attend Meta’s first Fitness + Wellness Summit for creators in my role as Fit Body app CMO. The day was described as devoted to covering “Future Ready” strategies to help build creator businesses. I’m going to recap a session that was devoted to Reels advice that I think might be helpful and add my interpretation of the information. My regular ICYMI newsletter will resume next week.
What’s the Big Deal with Reels?
Keep It Simple
Keep it short & sweet
Use text to capture attention
My POV: Meta wants to encourage creators to make Reels, so the examples shared were about 10 seconds each. Easy to make and easy to watch. Yes, that is at odds with the new 90-second time limit and other guidance we’ve heard. But keep in mind 90 seconds might be better for advertisers, not necessarily for creators. The important thing is to figure out the best length for you.
Be Relatable
Include everyday humor
Teach something
Short and moving
My POV: Nothing surprising here. These are very standard content marketing goals. Aim to inspire, entertain and/or educate through your videos.
Easy to Recreate
Leverage trends
Give it your twist
My POV: It’s no secret Instagram is testing a full-screen experience for the app so the emphasis is on making content creation as easy and fun as possible for creators and in a format that followers can easily duplicate. It takes pressure off creators and also lowers the barrier to entry for other users to create video. Especially with the new “Use Template” feature that lets you duplicate Reels with your own footage.
Create Culture
Use trending audio
Talk about major moments
Show your personality
My POV: The emphasis here was on reacting and responding to trending audio and newsy, cultural moments that creators can jump on versus spending too much time pioneering new or more complicated content formats. This is very much in line with a great article Later put out earlier this year: Why Pop Culture Should Be Part of Your Social Media Strategy in 2022.
When Producing a Reel, Think:
Audio
Hashtags
Headlines
Effects
My POV: Use trending audio ✅ Hashtags still matter (ahem, there has been some confusion). Creators were encouraged to use a combination of micro and macro so that the platform is “able to serve that to people who might be interested” ✅ Use text on screen, whether it’s captions or titles that instantly tell people what your video is about ✅ Reels now has Story features you can use such as captions, polls, quizzes and gif stickers ✅
What’s New on Reels
Extend your video up to 90 seconds
Interact with your audience using stickers
Import your own audio
Get inspired by Templates
My POV: If you have a really compelling idea that needs 90 seconds to develop, test it out. Ultimately, the data will tell you what resonates with your audience. Use the Story stickers that are now available on Reels. Note: Two people have pointed out to me that the stickers don’t work as well on longer videos and unfortunately I didn’t think to ask about that. I don’t know why that happens but if it’s happening to you, you’re not the only one! Import original audio if you’ve got it. And use Templates to simplify the video production process for yourself.
*Thanks to the Meta employee who shared this guidance. I did check that I was able to share this information but not sure if it’s appropriate to include their personal info here so will leave them as anon.