What's up everyone.
Welcome back to my channel via best place to learn how to get visible using
social media and get paid at using business strategy. Now, in today's video,
I want to dive deep into the topic of Instagram reels.
As you've known from my previous videos,
this one feature has really revived my account in terms of the reach that I've
been getting.
And I wanted to expand on some of the topics regarding Instagram reels,
because I know that I've done a few videos on it,
but there's definitely a lot more things that I can say about this specific
feature, specifically,
the key mistakes that you might not even realize that you're making when you're
creating Instagram reels that are actually hurting your results.
And so if you're interested in learning more about this topic,
then let's dive right into it.
So the first rookie mistake that I see people making is not editing their
Instagram reels with the four by five dimension in mind. Now,
many of you might not realize,
or maybe you do know this is that whenever you upload any type of video on
Instagram, whether that's an IGV, Instagram reels or regular video,
it is going to preview on the feed with the four by five dimension.
And so the rookie mistake that people are making is when they create their
Instagram reels. And when they're in the editing process,
they kind of make the text too high or too low.
And what ends up happening is when it starts getting previewed on someone's
feed, that text is ultimately cut off.
And what happens when the text is cut off is it's going to reduce the chances of
people, either watching the full Instagram reel itself,
because they don't understand what the message is,
or it's just going to dilute the overall message that you want your content to
be providing. And so what I like to do is when I'm editing my videos,
whether it's on Instagram reels, oral on Tik TOK,
I always try to lower the text or heighten the texts,
just so that I know for a fact it's going to fit the four by five dimension.
And for me to test it, what I usually like to do,
if I'm feeling extra paranoid is I will actually screen record my Instagram
reels. And then I will pretend to upload it as a feed post,
and then make sure that it actually fits the four by five dimension before I
actually fully commit to uploading the full video.
Now let's talk about the second rookie mistake,
and that is not including a call to action within the Instagram real video
itself.
I know many of you take my advice and you put the call to action within your
captions. But with Instagram reels,
if people don't even realize that they have to read the caption or even look at
the caption, then the call to action really isn't going anywhere.
And so that's why,
what we like to do with my Instagram reels is we always direct people to either
read the caption or go direct to my LinkedIn bio,
because the one thing that really differentiates Instagram reels versus
Tech-Talk is you can still write pretty long captions with your Instagram reels
that allow you to elaborate on the message that you're trying to send within
that 15 second clip.
And so that's why it's a really huge opportunity for you to actually direct
people's attention to the caption where you can explain more and also give them
the real call to action, which is either commenting, liking,
going to your LinkedIn bio, sharing your piece of content DM-ing you,
or whatever goal that you have for your piece of content. Now,
moving on to the third rookie mistake that I have for you,
and that is having way too much text that away too fast.
Now I used to make this mistake and sometimes not going to lie.
I still make this mistake.
And that is when I used to jam pack so much information in a 15 second clip,
and I would choose sounds and effects that would make the text appear and
disappear way too fast to the point where my audience couldn't really read it in
time.
And so the reason why you want to make sure that you are mindful of this is the
fact that if your audience doesn't understand what the heck you're trying to say
in an Instagram reels, it's really going to turn them off from engaging. Now,
of course, it can prompt them to rewatch the reels over and over again,
in order for them to actually get the message.
But most times people don't have the patience for that,
and it's not a really great experience.
And so that's why you want to make sure that when you are filming or editing
your Instagram reels, that you are mindful of being simple,
being concise and not over-complicating your 15 to 32nd video now
onto the next rookie mistake that I see,
and that is not maintaining the momentum of your Instagram reels strategy.
A rookie mistake that I see people make is they want to experiment with
Instagram reels. They post one to two times, and then they completely drop off.
Then a few months later, they try again. And then a few months later,
they try again. Now,
in order for you to really reap the reach benefits of Instagram reels,
you definitely want to maintain momentum and be consistent with posting IgE
reels.
And the reason why this is important is because Instagram reels feed off of each
other.
And especially in this day and age where Instagram is really trying to compete
with Tik TOK and they're prioritizing pushing content that is Instagram reels.
You definitely want to make sure that you have a consistent plan in place,
because what happens is if Instagram sees that, Hey,
Vanessa is a content creator who consistently posts Instagram reels using our
platform and our feature, let us prioritize,
pushing her content out into the algorithm.
And so that's why you definitely want to make sure you maintain momentum,
especially once you start your Instagram reels strategy. Next up,
let's talk about this rookie mistake.
And that is not realizing that Instagram reels has a longer shelf life than
any other posts that you would do on Instagram. For example,
the shelf life of Instagram stories is 24 hours.
The shelf life of IGTs and regular feed posts are about 48 hours.
But did you know for Instagram reels? It's about two weeks.
If you actually go into the Instagram real explore page, yes,
you will see a lot of more recent Instagram reels,
but you'll also see some Instagram reels that were posted a week or two ago.
And that is exactly why, even for me, sometimes I'll post an Instagram reels.
Maybe it doesn't get traction in the beginning, but two weeks later,
all of a sudden I'll see the views skyrocket.
And that's because it's hanging onto the algorithm for longer. Now,
why is it a rookie mistake that some of you don't know this?
It is because if you knew that the shelf life was longer on her Instagram reels,
then you definitely want to make sure that you reshare your Instagram reels to
your stories. Even after a week later, that it's been posted to get that boost.
Now,
only this many of you get discouraged when an Instagram reel doesn't perform and
then you delete it. Well,
I would actually keep it on for longer or just keep it on permanently because
over time it can have the capability of taking off. Now,
the next rookie mistake that I'm about to talk about is really meant for those
of you who have a smaller following count anywhere between less than 10,000,
let's say,
and that is using sounds that don't have a lot of existing videos under
it, because especially if you are a smaller creator,
it is actually quite advantageous of you to use other people's sounds so that
when other people are looking at that sound and they're creeping through all the
other videos that have used that sound itself, they're able to see your video,
which would then give you more views, more engagement and more profile visits.
And whatsoever it's very similar to hashtags. For instance,
if you look at this hashtag,
you're going to be able to see all the other posts that are also using that
hashtag. And so those posts would probably get more traffic.
And so if you are using an audio that has no existing
videos underneath, it's going to be a lot harder for you to get seen.
And so my pro tip for you is follow bigger influencers and look at the sounds
that they're using and then check to see if other videos are being used with
that sound and prioritize it using that sound instead of either starting from
scratch or using a sound that has no pre-existing videos. That way,
you're going to be able to capitalize on that traffic because there might be
other people out there who are also checking out that sound and therefore they
might find your video now onto the next mistake that I see,
and that is not having an Instagram at real cover for your video.
Now,
a lot of people it's really easy to just kind of go through the slider and pick
whatever frame that's in the video and just call it a day.
But at the end of the day,
you have to realize that an Instagram reels cover is the equivalent of a YouTube
thumbnail.
You want to make sure that it is attractive enough to get the highest click
through rate possible,
especially for those people who are actually creeping you on your feed and your
profile, and trying to decide what content piece of yours to click on. Now,
of course creating covered does not have to be complicated.
You don't have to open up a Canva account and create it from scratch.
Let me show you how I do it. What I do is before I even edit a video,
I screen record the Instagram real itself. And then afterwards,
I take a screenshot of a frame that I really like of that video. After that,
I crop it to the nine by 16 dimension.
Then I upload it onto my stories and then using the stories feature,
I'll just write a really engaging one liner to use as the title for my cover.
After that's done, I then upload it as the cover for my Instagram reels.
That way the cover is still a part of the video,
but my text and my title is separate.
And it's engaging enough for someone to want to click on the video now on to the
next two Ricky mistakes that I have for you. And yes,
I combine these two because I actually did mention them in this video that I
have right here.
So you definitely want to click this button and make sure you watch the full
thing. But essentially the number one,
that thing is having videos that are over 15 seconds long.
The sweet spot really is under 15 seconds.
And that is mainly because the previous of Instagram only shows 15 seconds.
So anything over 15 seconds,
it is going to reduce the watch time that you're going to get on that video.
The second thing is making sure that your Instagram reels is high quality or
highest quality as you can, without any other watermarks,
like a Tik TOK watermark, let's say.
And the reason why I know this is because over on their creators account,
they did mention that this was one of the reasons that would prevent them from
pushing your Instagram reels out into the algorithm.
So if you want more details on how to fix your cam settings, um,
how to actually optimize your quality for Instagram reels.
You definitely want to check out this video. Like I said,
now so far in this video,
we covered a lot of mistakes that people are making with Instagram reels
specifically.
And if you want to learn more about how to set a solid foundation for Instagram
real strategy and your Instagram foundations on its own,
then make sure you click the link.
That's in my description box because I have a full 13 page free guide that
covers a lot of other strategies from end-to-end,
including Instagram reels and other features as well on IgE.
So make sure you click the link that's in my description box or in my comment
section below. Now, speaking of mistakes, I've definitely made my fair share.
And so that's why I want you to hit the notification bell because in my next
video,
I'm actually going to talk about the things that I used to do on Instagram or
that I used to preach about Instagram,
that I no longer do that I no longer follow.
These are all the mistakes that I've made and also outdated strategies that I
just don't believe in anymore.
And so you definitely want to hit the notification bell.
So you do not miss that video now, while you wait for next week's video,
I do post a lot of content on social media, entrepreneurship, marketing,
and coaching.
So make sure you check out these two videos that I have right here as well.
I promise they will not disappoint as always guys. I appreciate you.
I hope you guys have a great day, a great week and a great life,
and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys.