Instagram Reels: How to Use it to Increase Your Engagement

“Instagram Reels” is a knock-off. A total fad copied after and from the popularity of TikTok. Ironically, it is also the game-changer of the social media marketing industry. As much as people hate change, it looks like Reels are here to stay. Instagram itself gave the concept an extra push by including its button in the navigation bar.

Reels are one of the quickest ways to gain engagement on Instagram. With people on social media having increasingly smaller amounts of time, long captions and IGTV videos are out, and Reels are in. The tiny 15-seconds span of an Instagram Reel is perfect for getting your message across in the simplest and fastest way possible.

Thus, if you are looking to increase engagement on Instagram, read on as we list a few ways you can use Reels for that purpose.

1. Knowledge is power

You might think that 15 seconds is a highly restrictive window. But I disagree. The smaller time frame allows for rapid delivery of information to your audience. Thus, reels are an amazing way of sharing tips, tricks, and other educational content with your audience. People hate exams, but they love knowledge.

Find out a few tricks that are relevant to your niche and industry. Try to find small and unknown tricks that do not require too much time to read. For instance, you can differentiate between a few commonly misused words of your native language.

Whatever you share, make it short, sweet, relevant, and interesting. Very soon, these reels will invite engagement towards your account. 

2. Really influence the world by starting challenges

The smaller time frame also lets people share tiny challenges that can be completed quickly and without too many resources. While the Kiki challenge and other such challenges were not prime examples of how the internet should be used, you can always come up with something unique and humorous.

For instance, you can challenge your audience to write a legible sentence while reading a completely different book altogether. These clever and distinctive ideas catch on quickly and who knows, you could get famous and find that traction you were hoping for.

A word of warning: please do not share challenges that are racist, sexist, discriminatory, derogatory, or harmful in any way. Respect humanity if you wish to get back respect and just fame.

3. Partner up

The essence of social media is connecting with others. There is only so far you can get if you keep going at it alone. Once you have taken a few steps on your journey, find influencers and creators who are in the same league as you (that is, they have a similar number of followers) and partner up with them to create a collaborative reel.

It will allow both of you to reach each other’s audience. Further, two heads are better than one and thus, you will be able to come up with more creative and engaging content with less effort and in a smaller amount of time.

4. Behind the scenes is where the magic happens

I love videos and shots from behind the scenes. They show the creative process in its full glory. If you are a creator or artist, create a quick reel of how your artwork or video came to be.

If you are a painter, artist, or writer, you can make it a time-lapse of the strokes you made. If you are a video creator, show how stunts or CGI was done. If you are a photographer, make a time-lapse video of how you arranged the set, the lights, what equipment you used, etc.

People love being a part of creative journeys and knowing the full scoop behind a story. Curiosity is a human trait. Thus, posting reels of your creative process can get you a lot of engagement.

5. Repurpose your content

If you cannot think of anything else, take the easy way out. If you are already engaged in social media, chances are that you have a TikTok account and have previously posted something on it. Since Instagram Reels and TikTok are quite similar, you can easily recycle your videos from the latter.

Just polish it up a bit, change the soundtrack if required and add a few extra touches and you are good to go. If it worked on TikTok, then the odds of it biting the dust on Reels are infinitesimal. Do note that this is only for when you cannot come up with anything else. Merely repurposing and reusing old videos constantly will get you nowhere.

Conclusion

Instagram Reels is a gamechanger and a powerful instrument if you know how to use it. The filters, effects, AR-assisted overlays, and inbuilt music support afford you highly creative opportunities. Use them well.

If you have other tricks you can share, drop your thoughts in the comments box below.