- Next?
Welcome to Instagram.
How can I help you today?
I would love to post this photo.
You wouldn't happen to have a video, would you?
No, just the photo.
You're a photo-sharing app, aren't you?
Used to be a photo-sharing app,
but we've been trying this new thing
where we actually post videos of people's photos,
and it's going great.
You're sure you wanna post this boring single image
that's not even a carousel?
This is my art.
I get that it's your art.
I used to be an artist and photographer too.
I get that,
but I just really think you should make it a video.
No, no, no, the photo please, post that.
Last chance.
You're sure?
I'm in, let's do it.
Okay, great choice.
Thank you for choosing Instagram.
Your post is going live in three, two, one.
Everyone look at his photo.
That's it?
Come on, I did warn you thrice.
Okay, can I get my photo back to post it somewhere else?
No, it's company policy.
It's all you posted it, it's ours now.
So sorry.
Wow, whey were right.
I hate it here.
Thank you.
Okay, bye.
Twitter likes photos, try that.
Yeah.
Doesn't it feel like
the Instagram algorithm is always changing?
Every three months it's like,
oh, we changed again, then two months,
oh, we changed again.
Two days, also we introduced all these features
that you don't wanna use.
And by the way, we're not a photo-sharing app anymore.
How fun is that?
So if you wanna grow, you better do video.
Before we get into today's video
talking about the new Instagram algorithm in 2022
as well as some content strategies to grow on this platform,
you are most likely a creator.
Am I wrong?
Leave a comment if you're a creator.
If you guys want free presets, title packs,
some music for your videos or your content,
go and sign up for my newsletter
and you can get all that for free.
And while you're down there,
wouldn't mind you pressing like and subscribe,
that would also help too.
Let's get into it.
How do you grow on IG right now?
It's video content, and more specifically it's reels
because video content and reels
actually get 135% more organic reach
than photo content alone,
hence why I've been saying photo content is dead.
So now Facebook recently announced
that the reels that you have on Instagram
will now also be shared on Facebook worldwide.
Now, previous to this, they were only available in Canada,
United States, Mexico, and India.
That means every single country can share their reel now
to a worldwide audience.
That means that you're getting free organic reach
just by switching the settings in the Instagram app
to allow your reels to be shared to Facebook.
Playing by all of Instagram's rules
and you're still saying to yourself,
why am I not growing on this app?
It's always so passionate.
Well, you could be shadow banned.
Instagram just released a brand new feature
called account status, which you can find
in the settings menu, which allows you to actually
check the status of your account
to see if you have any strikes
against their community guidelines.
And if you do,
that's probably the reason why you have such little reach
at this point and why you're not growing.
So check if you're shadow banned.
Okay, so let's talk about content strategies.
All right, so what you want is your content to fit
into one of these four categories.
So one, educational,
anything that teaches your audience something,
two, inspirational, anything that leaves your audience
wanting to get up and go and do something.
Next is promotional content.
So if you have a service or a product that you offer,
make content around that product or service.
And the last one is entertaining content.
I think this is subjective,
but some thought starters are comedy, maybe sports,
maybe you have a special skill set,
something really interesting,
that's all around entertainment.
But if you really wanna win on this platform,
you combine two to three of those different categories
into one video.
Make an educational entertaining video
with a unique skillset.
Now that you've figured out
what category your reel should be in,
now you have to try and hook your audience
within the first two seconds of your video.
You have to have a very, very strong hook to pull them in.
Now, pay attention to your own habits as a test.
Go on Instagram right now,
open up reels, and start scrolling.
Just have a little bit of self-awareness for a second.
Ask yourself the question, what pulled me into this video,
and try to apply that to your own content.
Always have something stimulating happening on screen.
Now, Logan Paul's editor, Hillier Smith once said
in a podcast, "Every 10 seconds of video
"must justify the next 10 seconds of video."
In my experience with reels, and you can quote me on this,
every one to two seconds of video
must justify the next one to two seconds of video.
You have such little time to tell a story,
and little visual cues on screen
will help keep your audience interested in your content.
Here are a few examples.
Start with captions.
Captions are a must.
Literally only 15% of people
actually watch video with sound on.
So by having captions, you're gonna reach that 85%
of the audience that is watching without sound on,
especially if you have a talking head video.
Try adding some post production techniques.
For example, we like adding little overlays,
maybe it's a texture on screen that's slightly moving,
maybe it's a moving background,
basically anything that can happen on screen
that adds a little bit more interest to your video.
In a perfect world, you would also create a loop,
and why this is a benefit to you
is if you can find a way to seamlessly transition
to the beginning of a video,
that will increase the amount of views
that you get on a video,
and will also extend the reach on that video
because it's telling the algorithm,
hey, people like to rewatch this video.
And the last tip is to have anticipation
built within your video.
Keep your audience wanting more.
Here is an easy example of anticipation.
Wonder what's inside this envelope.
It says strictly confidential.
Do you guys know what's inside of it?
I have no idea.
There's another envelope inside of it.
I wonder what's inside this envelope.
It says mission three.
You wanna know, don't you?
And we have a little wallet here,
and I wonder what's inside the wallet.
Oh, come on.
You gotta give me credit for this one.
That's good.
And on that note, press subscribe.
We're also giving away a camera
once we hit 750,000 subscribers.
I would love for you to be a part of this channel.
We post videos every single week,
and we're posting shorts now.
Now, in order to actually get more followers,
I think an important part of your content
is a call-to-action to get people to actually follow you.
So at the end of your piece of content,
have a little icon on screen that says
follow for more content and/or actually say
follow for more content like this.
And what this is,
is a prime example of the power of suggestion.
By saying follow me, you're increasing the likelihood
of someone actually wanting to follow you.
This is the exact same thing when McDonald's started saying
would you like fries with that?
When they were going through the drive through menu,
and they actually increased their fries sales tenfold.
So you can increase your follower account
just by suggesting follow for more.
All right, so let's talk about hashtags.
Now, hashtags aren't as powerful as they were for photos,
but where hashtags are actually useful for Instagram reels
is categorizing your content
and telling Instagram what niche
that content should live in.
And what we learned from heyDominik's YouTube channel
who is an Instagram algorithm pro,
I highly suggest you go and watch his content.
I'll go and link it below.
He suggests that you actually have three tags
or hashtags relevant to the reel itself,
and then two hashtags that are relevant to your niche.
Next is to join in on the conversation,
actually be a fan of the app and a fan of reels.
Go to other reels, leave comments,
join in the conversation.
Whatever the reel's about,
try to be authentic in your approach,
and that will benefit your own content.
Don't make it just about you and how the app can serve you,
be a part of the community.
Focus on showing up as much as possible.
Now, in ideal situation,
you would be posting reels pretty consistently.
But maybe you don't have the time to do that
because that's the reality of life.
You could have a full-time job.
You could have another business.
You could just be doing this for fun.
So another content strategy
that might not get as many followers
but will mean that you show up more often,
is to use one idea and then expand that
across three to four delivery methods on Instagram.
So let me explain it.
Let's say you make a reel.
Now actually post that video as a video to Instagram,
and then also turn the subject or the idea from that video
into an Instagram carousel post.
That way you're gonna hit
as many different audiences as possible.
So you're increasing the likelihood of people
seeing that one idea in multiple different ways.
So the strategy might not increase a lot like reels would,
but you're still growing.
And remember that every new eyeball
is a potential new customer, or new fan.
And my last point, don't be afraid to experiment.
This is something that we're doing a lot of right now.
We're trying all sorts of different content
to see what will work on the platform
because Instagram is so new,
and you could be the person that creates
a new trending type of content.
But what I encourage for you is original content
because Instagram will reward you
for original content on their platform.
Plus it's just a good look for your brand
to try to create original things.
So here is my summary.
The future of Instagram is all video.
That's actually pretty much all video platforms right now,
except for Twitter.
Maybe you can still get away with posting photos there,
but if you want to grow on Instagram
and you want to be successful on Instagram,
you're gonna have to start creating video content.
For example, my friends, Marie and Jake Snow
who only posted photos only a couple of months ago,
check this out, reel, reel, photo, reel,
reel, reel, reel, reel,
reel, reel, reel, reel.
It's a lot of reels.
And that's where they're seeing the most success.
Another content creator that I started recently following
because of reels is Bachvisual.
And here's an example
of the engagement that he gets on a photo post.
And here's the engagement that he gets on reels,
speaks for itself.
And content creator Lisaannesimpson from Toronto
recently grew 10,000 followers in the last three months
by posting consistently on reels.
The data speaks for itself, the future is video.
So despite if you like reels or not
or the future of where Instagram is headed at this point
and the decisions that Zuckeberg's making over there,
the future of this platform is short form video content.
If you wanna get free exposure,
if you wanna get paid for content on this platform,
you're gonna have to start posting video content.
And that is a reality that we have to live with
because exposure of your brand is always a good thing.
And I hate saying this a bit,
but thank you Instagram for being a big part
of how I make my money as a creator.
And thank you for providing opportunities
for us to reach new audiences
and new people around the world.
If you guys like this video please press like,
it actually makes a difference.
Subscribe and hit the bell to be notified for future videos.
And will most definitely catch you guys in the next one.
If you are an Instagram creator,
leave your links to your profile below.
I'd love to go and check out all your work.
Thank you for being here.
And I have a meeting literally in two minutes
that I have to get ready for.
I'll see you guys later, bye.