What's up everyone.
Welcome back to another episode of the freelance Friday podcast.
It is time.
We've gotta talk about it.
We've gotta have another little chat about Instagram reels because
yes, they are the content format that you really should be doing.
If you are looking to crush it on Instagram right now.
Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I am
not one to force anybody into anything.
So of course, if this feels like completely inauthentic to you, then don't
do it that that's gonna show through.
And there are other ways to grow an audience.
In today's day and age, there really are.
However, if you are open to it, if you are semi-interested in it, I have a really
easy Instagram real strategy for you.
And you could also use this for TikTok.
I think the strategies are quite similar.
The content types are a little bit different on these platforms, but.
getting content, creating short form, vertical video content.
It's all very similar.
So stay tuned.
If you're open to creating some reels, actually let me pull up my phone really
quick because I took a screenshot of my Instagram analytics, my content reach.
82.7 K on Instagram.
The, so my personal Instagram came from Instagram reels and it just swallows
I'll put a graphic up on YouTube.
If you're listening, uh, might not be as compelling, but it just swallows.
The other formats posts is 12.1 K stories, 4,834 videos, 916 live videos, 318.
And I actually went live.
This past week.
So that's really telling actually, like, I should have
just done a reel instead of alive.
Wow.
Yeah.
Reels are, are where you're getting reach.
Now I do wanna mention though, that those other formats, it's not
that they are like extinct that you should stop using them at all.
I still use stories almost every day.
I'm still doing live videos.
I'm actually doing an interview series right now with some of
my alumni from other courses.
So there are definitely things that I'm using.
I think.
My thought process is those formats are for my existing audience, right?
Like I'm gonna do live videos to nurture my existing audience
and maybe compel them to enroll.
In a course, I'm going to use stories to just keep in touch
with my audience, to ask them questions, to get feedback from them.
But if I'm looking out for new audiences, I'm looking up for new clients.
Reels is where I would be putting a lot of my time and effort into.
Okay.
So first let's talk about content types, the easiest types of content that you can
create for Instagram reels or for TikTok, just short form vertical video content.
So what I've been doing is, uh, very little original content.
I'm gonna be honest.
Now I understand that a repurposed video probably is not gonna be the thing that
goes viral and gets like 8 million views or whatever, but it is something that is.
Easy for me to do, to just maintain a presence on these platforms.
So repurposed content for me is repurposing my YouTube videos,
specifically my podcast, I've been cutting those into shorts, just pulling
a 32nd clip or less every single week and posting one of those minimum on reals
and or TikTok and or YouTube shorts.
That's been my minimum's viable strategy basically.
And if you have a YouTube channel, if you have a podcast, Even if you have
like webinars or a membership group where maybe you do live Q and A's with your
audience, your members, things like that.
And you have anything that you can just pull snippets from.
That is a great place to start.
You probably have, you know, I don't know, dozens of shorts, just in a few
of those different content pieces.
And the great thing about that is if you have a repository of content, like
I have a YouTube channel, maybe YouTube, maybe have podcast, whatever, just.
Start creating those so that they're on hand and you can start
using them as drafts whenever you need some sort of filler content.
So that's one really, really easy content type.
I think the trick is to look for something that's compelling
and that stands on its own.
So for instance, if I am doing a.
Five tips.
I think the last podcast was like five things you need to do before your launch.
Well, probably the clip that I pulled for that is one of those tips
that is like a, a tip on its own.
You have to understand the audience and the problem before you start
developing the content or the format that you're gonna deliver this in, right?
You don't need to watch the entire podcast or the entire video.
To see that piece of advice, but hopefully it is compelling enough to
say, oh, that was one really good tip.
Now let me see what the other four are.
And maybe go over to my YouTube and watch, or maybe not, or maybe not.
And you just got one piece of advice from that real, and you're moving on,
but you might follow me on Instagram or at least know who I am and start to
develop name recognition, et cetera.
Now, the second super easy type of content that I've been using is B roll B.
Roll is basically just like video.
That plays, uh, that doesn't necessarily have somebody
talking directly to the camera.
So, I mean, I've been taking B-roll of the most random things I've been taking B-roll
of like driving on the highway or being in the passenger seat on the highway, just
like pretty landscape views of, you know, The road, what else have I been taking?
B-roll of just like me working I've I've actually, again, went through
my archives because I am a YouTuber.
I do have a lot of B-roll videos that I'll sometimes use to help with
storytelling and YouTube content.
So I've been going through that content as well and just cropping
it into a vertical format.
So I just have them in a folder on my phone.
So if I'm like, Ooh, I have something I wanna say, I just need like a
video to play in the background.
There we go.
You can also use a stock video website, like Canva to pull, you know, stock video
clips as well for you to use as B roll.
And what I do with that B roll is, I mean, I.
Put a little word or some words on it, you know, I mean, if you're
watching on YouTube, you'll see some examples playing throughout this,
but really just like easy stuff.
And also a lot of that stuff is repurposed from another platform, which is Twitter.
For me, Twitter is a more writing heavy platform.
Maybe you have a blog, maybe you have a newsletter, an email newsletter or
something where you do a lot of writing.
Go back to those word, heavy content pieces.
Look at your top performers, and then just put that text over top of a B-roll video.
And there you go.
You have a real, you have a TikTok, you know, um, it's super, super easy.
And I've been using that as filler really between podcast clips.
And then that, and then I might do one kind of face to camera video.
If I have time, if I have energy, if I feel inspired all the things, but
sometimes it's just that one or that two.
Now, speaking of let's talk about content schedule for your Instagram real strategy.
Now, obviously all of these platforms, reals and TikTok,
they want you to be active.
Like of course they probably want us to be posting 20 million times a day.
If you watch my TikTok for beginners' video, I think they said.
Up to three times a day is what they like to see.
But my advice is always gonna be do what is sustainable for you?
And three times a day, even once a day is not sustainable for me,
maybe, you know, come December.
Maybe I'll do business again where you like vlog every day.
Maybe I'll do that on TikTok again and try to post a TikTok
every day or a real, every day.
We'll see.
Right?
Like I can do it in sprints, but I cannot commit to doing that all the time.
So my advice for you is to choose.
A schedule come up with a schedule.
Maybe it's once a week, maybe it's twice a week, maybe it's three times a week.
And just stick to that and make sure that you are posting once a week.
I'm a part of a video accountability group.
We get together once a week and we actually edit these shorts together.
So it's on my calendar.
I feel held accountable because it's like, even though, you know, I don't have
to, I'm not being forced to obviously.
I like to show up and I don't wanna show up empty handed.
Right.
I don't wanna sit there and twiddle my thumbs.
So even if you just put 30 minutes on your calendar, whether you join a group like
that, or whether you just, you know, do it with yourself, that is a really big help.
And it makes sure that I at least have that one short out every single week.
I would say if you were one of my clients and I had to like,
Push a magic button here and tell you what you should shoot for.
I would say three times a week feels good.
And again, using these content types is totally doable.
You could totally repurpose piece of content, do some B-roll content.
And then maybe I would ask you as my client.
Hey, can you just shoot one new original piece of content each week?
I think that's doable.
I think we can all find 15 minutes to.
You know, record a reel or a screen share or whatever.
What about topics?
Now, if you are repurposing content, you probably already have
a content strategy over there.
So my real strategy, my TikTok strategy leans largely on my YouTube
strategy, which I'm not gonna get into.
In this episode.
I have videos and podcasts all about that, that you can click to check out.
I also have a course all about YouTube.
So I'll leave that in the resources for you just in case you're
interested, but it largely follow.
That strategy.
Now, if you don't have existing long form content that you're sort of repurposing
from or leaning on, then my advice is.
Number one, go through your DMS or go through your emails.
If you are a, you know, maybe you're e-commerce so you get a lot of customer
support, emails, start tracking those, start looking through those,
put together a document and see what questions come up repeatedly.
Same thing for your DMS.
Are you seeing, like everybody's asking you for Instagram story strategy
or how to get clients or, you know, whatever that topic might be for you.
Boom.
That's a video.
Like that's a real, that's a TikTok on its own.
Answer those questions and let those questions work for you.
If you're gonna go through the energy and effort of responding to people,
which I think is, you know, a good idea to do, if you're on social
media, respond to your audience, at least get a view out of it, you know?
So it's super easy to just record a quick, real or TikTok, and then link
over to it in your DMS and say, Hey, answer this question right here on my.
Reels on my TikTok, check it out.
So that's a great place to start another great place to start.
Maybe, you know, people aren't asking you for things yet,
cuz you're super brand new.
Totally cool.
I love the resource.
Answer the public.
I recommend it all the time to people.
It's just like this little search engine that allows you to type in a keyword.
Let's say you wanna type in, um, music production.
Or filmmaking or whatever it is that you do, or you wanna be known for type
it in, make sure to change the region if that's important to you, to the us.
Cause I think it's a UK, it defaults to the UK.
And then it's gonna give you this list of a bunch of different questions that
people are asking related to that topic.
So, you know, how much do filmmakers get paid might be one or how to
start filmmaking, like all of these different queries and these
different prompts look through them.
Some of them will totally not apply.
Others will be.
Perfect for you again, that on its own is a real or a talk,
same thing with Cora and Reddit.
Cora's a little more straightforward.
Again, you can type in your, your, uh, keyword and see a bunch of
questions that other people are asking the greater internet about.
And one, you can answer them on Cora using text, but you can also turn
that into a short form video piece.
And lastly, Reddit now Reddit is a little bit less direct and just like.
Internet stalking, I guess I can say, like when I am researching a topic,
I'm looking on Reddit, I'm looking on Twitter, I'm using the search
function on Twitter to search and see what people are talking about.
That topic, what questions they're asking, same thing for Reddit.
So it's not gonna be quite as direct or not gonna get like this fancy spreadsheet
or CSV file or whatever, but you can just do a little bit of lurking and see,
you know, what the conversation is about whatever topic that you are looking for.
And then lastly, when it comes to editing and putting these things together, the
thing that has been the most helpful, and that has helped me be really consistent
with short form vertical video is Des and they are sponsoring today's podcast
episode, but they really don't need to because I talk about them all the time.
So I'm sure if you're not a new listener, if you've been around for
a while, you've heard about them.
But script is basically like an AI video and audio editor.
I've been editing videos for over half my life, the traditional way, and I love it.
Don't get me wrong.
Still use cases for, you know, if you wanna have these super flashy,
fancy, you know, things or making a film or whatever, of course it makes
sense to use a more robust editor, but for quick 15, 32nd clips or even
longer script is really amazing.
And it takes a lot of the guesswork.
Out of editing.
So if you are not used to editing you basically go through the script, you
go through the transcript and edit it, just like you would a word doc.
So if I wanted to cut out me saying a particular word, I
just delete the word from the transcript and it makes a jump cut.
So it's already there for me when it comes to reals and tos in particular,
the thing that I really love about it is that script enables me to.
Captions really, really easily.
And I know that Instagram allows you to add captions as well, but
they are not quite as precise as I would like them to be.
And I also don't get to customize them quite as much as I do with
scripts so I can make animated texts.
So like certain words light up when I'm saying that word, or I can change
the font, the sizes, like you just have a lot more customization over it.
And captions are super important for this type of content, because if you're
anything like me, I have my phone volume.
All the time.
So if a TikTok or real doesn't have captions, I am missing
half of what they're saying.
And then of course, and more importantly, you wanna make sure that
you are creating accessible content for people who are unable to hear your
content and need to read it instead.
So I love the script.
I'm gonna leave a link in the show notes for you, if you wanna check it out.
But that is my editor of choice personally, and I edit everything.
And describe first before I import my reels, because I just find
the native real editor to be.
a little annoying.
It's a little better than tos.
I will be honest, but it still is a little bit annoying.
So honestly, that's the strategy.
You come up with your content, see if there's a place that you can
repurpose it from, or a type of content that you can start shooting.
You decide on your schedule, put something on the calendar
or join an accountability group.
Like I'm a part of, and then you come up with some topics,
just start answering questions.
And if you stay on that, Assistant schedule in theory, what should start
happening is conversation, right?
People will start asking you questions and then you can start replying to
those reels or replying to those tos.
And it just kind of have, this has this snowball effect.
So you'll be able to start creating more and more content.
So just a quick one today.
I hope this was helpful.
I have had such a mind block over short form, vertical video for a
while, and I think I was just over complicating it, I think in order to.
Be on the platform, have a presence and just get used to it.
This is really all that you need.
You can follow my Instagram reels and my talks at the Latasha.
James, if you wanna check them out, say hello, and of course you can
subscribe to the YouTube channel to the podcasting platforms.
And I hope this was helpful.
I hope you'll have a great weekend and I will talk to you in the next one.
Fight.