Do you ever wish you could just rub a magic lamp and a genie will pop out of it
and make all of your Reels go viral? I wish I could be that magic genie for you,
but today instead,
I'm gonna play the role of the wise advice-giving genie in the background,
whispering things in your ear and telling you what mistakes to avoid when it
comes to making your Instagram Reels.
These mistakes are preventing you from getting views, engagement,
and maybe even going viral.
The first mistake I see business owners making when it comes to their Reels and
I am totally guilty of this one too,
is when you have one Reel go semi-viral,
or maybe even viral in comparison to what your typical views are,
continue that format of Reel; make more Reels in that style.
I have made this mistake in the past where I made one Reel with this one clip of
audio and it did really well. It got over 250,000 views. Let's take a look.
It took several months before I realized that, Hey,
that audio clip did really well for me. Maybe I should use it again. So I did.
I made another Reel with that same audio, and guess what?
It got a million views.
Again, months went by,
so many months before I thought to use that audio clip again. And I did.
Now, it wasn't a viral video,
but still that audio clip and that style of video works for my account.
It works for my audience.
So if you ever make a Reel and it does better than average,
it gets more views. Maybe it doesn't go viral,
which is a relative definition of what that really means,
but maybe it goes viral in comparison to your other Reels,
continue making Reels in that same format, whether it's using the same audio,
maybe it's a talking head tip,
or maybe it's a demo that people like to see over and over again.
Don't drop that momentum.
Another example of this could be seen in my friend's account @stylealiveafter55.
Renata was actually my neighbor when I was growing up and her account has over a
hundred thousand followers.
And I notice that she's continued a certain style of Reel,
and that is sharing demos of how to fold or tie scarves.
It seems like Renata caught onto this tip too,
because once she started seeing a lot of traction with videos based around
scarf demos, she continued making more and more and her account has only grown.
The second mistake I see business owners making is filming Reels directly
within the Reels app. And I'm kind of joking,
kind of not joking when I say this.
We know since Reels came out in August of 2020, that it can be a little glitchy.
In fact, I have a t-shirt that says "glitchy AF".
I know the frustration of filming Reels within the app,
and then weird things happen.
Like you can't actually edit text or you can't change the duration of your text,
or you suddenly lose your Reels draft. And yes,
all of these things have happened to me too.
One of my most popular videos on this channel is how to make Reels outside of
Instagram. Go ahead and check it out now.
I will say though that the Instagram app has gotten better with time.
It's a little more reliable now,
but if you do film your Reels within the Instagram app,
be sure to save backup copies to your camera, always.
The third mistake business owners make when it comes to their Reels has to do
with the text on screen. Now let's call text the overall problem,
and then there are several sub-problems underneath that umbrella.
So the first problem I see when it comes to text is not putting it on screen at
all. People's attention spans are short.
So if you don't have any text on screen,
chances are they're going to keep scrolling past your Reel.
They want to read at a glance what information or what inspiration you
have for them in your Reel. So be sure to add onscreen text to your Reels,
definitely a headline,
maybe some text in the middle of your Reel and definitely a call to action.
The other mistake I see with text is when it's placed outside of the boundaries
that Instagram gives us.
So you shouldn't be placing text near the bottom of your screen or near the
perimeter of the entire Reel itself.
We have these boundaries in place for a reason.
So if you lay your text outside of these boundary lines,
it's going to look cut off to the viewer.
The third mistake people make with text is they either have too much of it and
people can't read it, or it shows for too short of a time.
Now this can also be a strategy because when you have a lot of text or text that
only shows for a few seconds,
usually it means that people rewatch your Reel to catch that text.
So it could be a strategy that works,
or it could also just annoy your viewers and they give up before they even try.
So it's kind of a fine balance. It is a good idea to have snappy text,
try it out and see if it works for you.
If you find that your Reels are actually kind of dropping or stagnating,
maybe let text stay on screen a little bit longer,
or don't lay so much text on screen that people can't read it.
Speaking of Reels and a magic genie just giving you all the answers,
have you checked out my free resource that I put together yet?
Inside you get six done for you ideas that's perfect for you,
the busy business owner. And no you don't have to dance,
you don't have to point if you don't want to.
These are six proven ideas for business. If you're interested,
head to EliseDarma.co/Reels and grab it today, it's free.
The fourth mistake business owners make is: only jumping on trends.
Now I've noticed a pattern when trends first came out,
à la TikTok style business owners were very like, no, I don't want to,
it looks silly. It's for the teens. But now, now today,
business owners are in with the trends. They like the fun music, the fun audio.
However, it's great to do that. It shares personality.
You can have fun with your video. These are all good things.
But the mistake I see is when business owners only produce trends and they
forget to share tips or value or free information within their Reels.
I am guilty of doing this one where I have enjoyed finding trending audio a
whole lot. But then when I polled my audience and asked them,
what do you like to see, trends or tips based Reels?
They overwhelmingly chose my tips based Reels.
And when I looked at my data and my insights,
my best performing Reels are the ones where I am sharing tips,
whether I'm talking on camera like this or the text is displayed on screen with
little text bubbles. So remember trends are great. Trends are fun,
but don't forget to also mix in some pure value and pure information based
Reels too.
The next mistake business owners make is something that I thought we all worked
through like a year ago, but I still see this happening. And it's this:
it's repurposing your TikToks over into Instagram,
but including the TikTok logo in your video. Now,
this is a mistake because we know from Instagram,
Instagram has already said that it won't promote or really push out videos
that have other brand logos, AKA TikTok, its main competitor.
So while TikTok is a great place to find trends and make videos,
and of course you're gonna wanna save your TikTok and repurpose it for Reels.
There's one more step you need to take.
And it's removing the TikTok logo or watermark from your video.
I've covered this process in depth in this video right here.
So be sure to check it out.
The next mistake I see my students make a lot is ignoring the pre-production
process. Instead, they just jump on TikTok or Instagram. They look for trends,
they look for audio and then they wanna film and write and edit and all that
stuff in one go.
Your creation process for your Reels is gonna be so much more efficient if you
take a few moments before you start filming to plan out what you need to do,
say, or even what the text is gonna be,
that you're gonna put on screen in your Reel. So to keep it simple,
I like to first find the Reel or audio that I'm gonna use for my brand.
Then I bring it into my production tool, which is called Asana.
And that's where I plan out what I need to say or what my onscreen text is gonna
be. Once I have that in place, then I'm good to film. Then once I've filmed,
it's a lot easier to edit because I've done that brainstorming and that planning
in advance,
this pre-production process that I'm referring to is also called batch creation.
And I know that finding videos and adapting them to your business can take
so much time.
It can be biggest hump that you need to get over before you can start filming.
That's why I created a product called Videos Vault. Inside,
I have done the brainstorming for you.
I have generated 300 video ideas that you can use for your TikTok or your Reels
and they've all been adapted to your business model, whether you offer coaching,
services or products. It's an amazing tool. So check it out at VideosVault.co.
The next mistake I see business owners making is something I touched on earlier,
but it's this: as you're filming Reels, it's often, you'll find, glitches.
It's an app that's in constant development. So when you film Reels,
especially within the Instagram app,
be sure to save backup copies to your camera roll,
even if it saves without the audio, which is common,
you can always just re-upload that video clip to your matched audio at a later
date if you were to lose that draft. Now, along with this mistake,
I also see business owners not updating their Instagram app frequently enough,
as I said, it's an app that's in constant update mode.
It seems to change like almost every week. Every time I open it,
especially when I travel to different countries.
It looks different no matter where I am.
So be sure to always update in your app store the Instagram app so that you're
using the latest version that you have access to.
Now that I've been your wise advice,-giving genie when it comes to Reels,
I hope join me in this next video here, where I cover in depth,
how to make viral Reels. It's a good one. I'll see you there soon.