Show Notes
Instagram dropped it’s own version of TikTok.
Paying attention to the data after a new feature comes out is a great way to accelerate the growth of your business.
In this episode you’ll learn
- The type of content you should be creating with Reels
- How you can use TikTok as inspiration to create new content on Instagram Reels
- And why if you are a product based business this can be extremely beneficial for reaching new customers
If you’re an online store owner and want to know exactly how much you should be spending in advertising to grow your business profitably then grab our free plug-and-play calculator here: https://ecommerce.bitbranding.co/calculator
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Transcript
How Businesses can Leverage Instagram Reels - YT.mp4
Christian [00:00:00] If you're trying to grow your audience and ultimately your business through Instagram, then this episode is going to be excellent for you because Instagram has recently released Instagram Reels and we're going to actually give you a breakdown of some of the things that you can start doing today to start leveraging that new feature. So check this out.
Narrator [00:00:20] This is The Marketing Natives providing actionable ways to grow, improve and succeed in your business and now your host, Christian and Aaron.
Aaron [00:00:34] So I feel like we should always, we could do something fun for the intros here or should I always just ask a random ice breaker question to answer? Or not really an icebreaker, just more of an interesting question. So it's just like a this or that. I was thinking. So if you're trapped in a room, we've done this before.
Aaron [00:00:51] But like, if you were trapped in a room, would you rather be in a room full of spiders like it's full of spiders or full of snakes?
Aaron [00:00:58] Like there are actually probably more spiders because of mass before. So would you rather be in a room with spiders or snakes?
Christian [00:01:04] Snakes.
Aaron [00:01:04] Really?
Christian [00:01:04] Yeah.
Aaron [00:01:08] I don't know neither of the option is a good one, but.
Christian [00:01:13] Well snakes you can, I think, control a little bit better than like spiders, they will crawl all over you. I don't think I understand, like they'll go underneath your clothing, they'll hide in between your shoe laces, like, you know what I'm saying?
Aaron [00:01:28] Yeah.
Christian [00:01:28] Whereas snakes, sure, I mean, you can still see them and maybe they're crawling into your sleeve you can pull them out. But if there's one hundred spiders crawling into your sleeve like hmm.
Aaron [00:01:41] Yeah, because you're in a room that's full like just imagine like if you're on the video, like our office, just like to our necks full of spiders and snakes. So if you don't like that, that's completely fine. It has nothing to do with the podcast episode. We may do something like that. I just always more so interested, but we're actually talking about Instagram Reels and this should be really fun. I think this is definitely something business owners need to be taken advantage of because it's something that Instagram is giving weight to, meaning that they're pushing it out more so than if you're just doing like IG TV or just a regular video. They're actually giving you a lot more precedence in the news feed with Instagram Reels. So they should be super interesting for you guys.
Christian [00:02:27] Yeah. I think with any new feature that Instagram releases or any social platform, you should definitely be paying attention to those new features and using those features right away. These platforms tend to reward those that are early adapters and are actually trying out new things. With those features, they'll definitely promote your content and you'll be able to grow your audience, I think, a little bit faster and easier. So I think as a general answer on how businesses can leverage Instagram Reels, obviously the way to leverage is you'll grow your audience and I think you will grow your audience and potentially expand it into some people that, I don't know, might not have taken notice of you before, and I think it has to do with the fact that in Instagram everyone's so concerned about being perfect and, you know, photo ready and the aesthetic and all those things. But with Instagram Reels, you sort of dropped that and just become just more fluent, more natural, more fun and more creative.
Christian [00:03:41] So it's just a way to expand your audience in that sense that people who might have looked at you before and like, it's okay, the content is all right, but then all of a sudden you start posting these Instagram Reels where you're showing yourself, you're doing dances, you're being creative, and you start to get noticed by a different set of audience, a different set of eyes and especially Instagram pushing your content.
Christian [00:04:08] You're definitely going to grow your audience if you're just literally just pushing out content like it doesn't have to be perfect, doesn't have to be anything, it could be a little dance and you will still expand your reach and expand your audience.
Aaron [00:04:22] Yeah. And I think if you're doing like a little bit of research, what most people are doing is their Instagram is very much really good at adapting to the market. So they're like "Oh TikTok", there's this little app called TikTok that's blown up.
Christian [00:04:35] Maybe stealing from the market.
Aaron [00:04:36] Yes, they're very good stealers or thefts, what's the other one for stealing? I don't know.
Christian [00:04:46] Thieves.
Aaron [00:04:46] That's the word I was looking for. Like, people are listening like, no, come on dude it is thieves. But yeah, most people are taking their TikTok videos that were there and then they're uploading them as Reels and they're getting more push from what they were before. I've even seen ads now where the Reels have done so well that they're expanding and they're running ads off of it. Even, there's a girl that I know, I can't remember somewhere in the DFW area, but she's been doing videos and it's just super quick tips. She's got like maybe five thousand followers. So it's not I mean, not a ton a decent amount of followers, but her videos on Reels are like, she uses them on TikTok and then it's got quick cuts and everything, and these videos are getting like twenty to thirty thousand views. I'm like, what? Like, if you had five thousand followers on Instagram and you post it on IG TV, you may get like two or three hundred or maybe four hundred views. But twenty to thirty thousand views, I think it's just, maybe they will slow down. But right now is at least at the time of this recording and even in the future is like it's a good way to be creative and a good way for you to kind of show a different side, like you mentioned. But it's also just super favorable for the feed, which is amazing, I guess, right now.
Christian [00:05:58] Yeah, I mean, I don't think Instagram Reels is doing as well as TikTok when it comes to views, to share amount of views unlike on TikTok is just insane. I mean, obviously, the prediction is going to be that, yeah, Instagram Reels is going to be insanely huge within Instagram and I don't know, might be something where they get rid of certain features of their reorganize to feed, you know, so you're actually able to see more Instagram Reels. I can definitely see them doing something like that.
Aaron [00:06:27] Yeah.
Christian [00:06:27] But I know that something will change within the Instagram app to cater for that because, I mean, they had the feed, they have stories have IG TV and now they've added Instagram Reels. It just seems like a lot for, you know, this one app versus you have TikTok where it's like, that's it.
Aaron [00:06:43] That's what they do. Well, if you look at the explorer section, like if you go look like, say, for a hashtag, like if you look at Allen TX or if you look at marketing or whatever, like the video, that's number one or the thing that's number one on that is a Reel. It used to be IG TV and it would take up more of the screen, but now it's a Reel and the Reel takes up most of the real state. So it's even more of a reason to kind of go there.
Christian [00:07:06] Yeah.
Aaron [00:07:06] But I think to get into this episode a little bit more like leveraging Instagram Reels, I think the best way to do it is not necessarily try to overthink it, meaning, okay, if you were doing something previously, it's not saying that you have to reinvent yourself. I think most people think that TikTok; you have to be a dancer or you have to be like somebody who is like a singer or like it's for the people who are the arts, and that's not the case at all. If anything, it's probably mostly not those people. But I think that's what people see. They see like, oh, funny TikTok dancers sort of like that's what TikTok is when they don't realize it and then they equate that to Instagram Reels are like, oh, Instagram Reels. It's like TikTok means you've got to do the dances and I'm not going to do it because of that, when that's not the case, at least my perception of that.
Aaron [00:07:56] That's not the case.
Christian [00:07:56] Yeah. I think with Instagram Reels something that it's going to be very beneficial for businesses or brands that are listening. It's going to be the educational content. It's going to be informative, content, things that again you might think, okay, that's maybe kind of boring or it's not the dancing, it's not lip syncing, it's not any of that stuff. But there are creative people, just people who are doing things differently because you have all these tools at your disposal and I think that's great about TikTok. In Instagram Reels is that, it just allows businesses like you who are listening to be more creative because they're providing the tools for you.
Christian [00:08:37] So, you know, whereas if you need to create an educational video for, I don't know, Facebook or Instagram and all you have on your phone is just the camera app or maybe you're doing it straight from Instagram. You may not have a lot of different things that you can do with it, but with Instagram Reels and with TikTok, like they give you music, they give you the jump cut and they give you the ability for you to mirror. They give you all these little things where you just kind of start just browsing and looking at different things and you're like, oh, I could do like a conversation back and forth with myself with this mirror effect, literally. I don't even have to, like, change places. All I have to do is just like, look this way, like I'm having this conversation with this person and just tap on it and it just completely flips it for you where it's like super easy for you to create a video on just having a conversation with a client, let's say, you know. It's a very informational educational video and it's just super easy for you to create.
Aaron [00:09:34] Yeah.
Christian [00:09:34] I read there from the app. So I think that's what makes it really good is the fact that like, you're saying, like you don't have to necessarily think too much about it, because they already have a lot of features and a lot of different cool little things where you just start browsing through some of those and you're like, oh, I can do this like, this is a pretty good idea. So it's just taking some of the content that maybe you've already created and then just like rethinking it in a way that fit for this for this platform. And I think educational content is one of the easiest ones because a lot of businesses are doing some sort of educational content on some of their platform.
Aaron [00:10:12] I think another way to really like use or that we've seen Instagram Reels be used is like at case studies, but then also just like examples or like reviews of things. What's hugely popular on YouTube is like reviews. Okay, great, TikTok does reviews as well. Like Oh! I saw review between Whataburger and McDonald's, like this guy just smashed McDonald's, but he was like going through this review about Whataburger. Same could be done for your services too. It's like for us or I guess us is like a marketing agency, you could go with this company and you're going to get this, this and this, or you can go with this or will go with us and it's like this, this and this. It's like you get music, you can be pointing to the screen, and it's not anything that takes like quote unquote video editing skills. It's all done from a phone. It's all very interactive. But it's I think it's just highly engaging, like text on screen music. I think TikTok did it well. And then Instagram copied or stole is that it's just super easy. Like anybody can do an Instagram story, anybody can do an Instagram Reel and that's what makes it so amazing is that you don't have to be over the top. We were talking about this beforehand not to get political, but the video ads that were done or the ads that were done between political candidates right now, by this point, you guys probably know who the president is, but they were just breaking down the two ads and it's like one of them was just being organic and the other one was being too polished. Actually the organic one did better. So it's like you don't have to be over polished with Instagram Reels. You can just literally go in and do a product review, use case studies and just use what's on what's given to you and your availability and people like that, like it's just super real and for whatever reason it's effective.
Christian [00:12:03] Yeah, and you think about case studies, for example, we have case studies on our website. We don't have to reinvent the wheel like we could literally just point our phone to this case study on our website and just talk about it and maybe we have some pictures on the case study, maybe we don't show those pictures. We actually go to the ad campaigns and actually show you this is what we did, with your finger just pointing at the screen. I don't want to keep going back to TikTok, but I've seen that work on TikTok where someone is just showing me, like, why this campaign that's so good. I'm like just glued to the screen looking at this guy, just talk about his campaign and what made it so great. And then, when you think about product reviews and things like that, you might think that, oh, that's user generated content like your customers are usually doing these reviews. How am I going to record them doing that? Well, Instagram Reels you don't have to make the video right there from the app. You can use old videos that you have saved on your phone. So it's not like you have to create something new. You can use old content, old video content.
Christian [00:13:08] I think when you started on TikTok, a lot of the videos that you were posting were old videos and you were just kind of adding effects, maybe editing them a little bit.
Aaron [00:13:17] Yeah.
Christian [00:13:18] But it was videos that you already had on your phone and that's the same thing for Instagram Reels because you don't have to create anything new per say.
Christian [00:13:26] You can already use some of the things that you have on your phone or your computer, etc.
Aaron [00:13:30] One of the things that you can do that's like even if you don't have anything like previously created, maybe you're just starting your business or you didn't take videos before you like, oh, if I would have only done this. Some of the super popular is like stories or day to day type of things, like we could literally do a Reel right now saying, hey, look, we're doing a podcast episode about Reels and about TikTok, and this is all the things that we're going to be covering on in this episode. So if you want for the second video and then we could show them like, hey, here's the tip. So we could literally break this down into here's a Reel, it's a Reel in the moment video, quote unquote "day in a life or slice of life", and those do really well to people more than ever if we have not been convinced yet, they love to see the behind the scenes. That's why stories for Facebook, Instagram, eventually I think TikTok will do it, LinkedIn has it where there's just really quick like behind the scenes, people are so nosy. They want to know what's going on in other people's lives. It's just natural curiosity of human nature. So the company stories in the day to day is that's something you could just pick up your phone and you could use and do right then and will be effective.
Aaron [00:14:53] Hey, local business owners, if you're ready to grow your business online without having to work more in your business and you can spend more time on it. We created a free training on how to attract, qualify and convert more leads online. It's 38 minutes. It's going to take a little bit of your time, but it's going to have a huge benefit. It's completely free. Make sure you click below in the description, whether you're on Facebook, whether you're on YouTube or whether you're on the podcast. Everything's there that you need. Go grab the training now.
Christian [00:15:23] Yeah, I think the other main point is that storytelling aspect of video, what video is just so easy to tell a story, and that's why movies and TV shows are so popular. It's because you go to this progression of something that's going on the screen. So same with any sort of video that you're making, even with Instagram Reels is that progression, that story aspect. So talking about your company story or using it to go behind the scenes, but not just going behind the scenes, but telling a story of what's happening is what's really going to keep people glued and engaged.
Christian [00:15:57] I've seen a lot of examples of people doing highly creative things, and then people wanted to know, okay, how did you do that? You know, I think that goes back a little bit, maybe to the informational type content. But it's also that behind the scenes, like I've seen a lot of videos where that have gone viral, like insanely viral, and then they post another one maybe a few days later. Oh, this is actually how I did this.
Aaron [00:16:20] Yes. It's so cool.
[00:16:21] Those are so freaking cool to get to know exactly how they did it. It's sort of a combination of the informational and then, the behind the scenes and storytelling aspect that just makes them absolutely great.
Aaron [00:16:33] One thing I think from that videos like if you do it and it becomes popular, like two things that people want to know is like the why. So like, why did you do this video? Like, Oh, I was actually just I was actually going to the restroom and somebody texted me and then I dropped my phone and this made me think of like, why bathroom selfies are bad and that's why I did this video. And then, the how is also interesting. So it's like there's one idea it could turn in two different videos because people want to know why and how you do something and if you're able to show them, it's like even more interesting.
Christian [00:17:04] Yeah. Exactly.
Aaron [00:17:05] But I think overall we've been talking about TikTok.
Aaron [00:17:08] I feel like you know, they're kind of connected. Instagram Reels to me or whatever you put on TikTok is absolutely perfect for an Instagram Reel, but it's also a great place to gather inspiration for people who have done amazingly well on TikTok.
Aaron [00:17:25] You've seen them potentially as ads right now on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The one thing that people don't realize is that these platforms, you don't own any of the data and you don't own any of your customers or followers or likes, they don't mean anything. So the people who are doing really well, if you go and look at it right now, if they build a following on TikTok, they also have a following on Instagram or Building One or they also have something on YouTube or at least collecting email addresses or doing something. We've talked about Doggface208 while he was super popular in TikTok, blew up his TikTok to grow his Instagram following and he grew his Instagram following and sending traffic to his website, collect email addresses and to sell merch. So that's the progression that has to happen with the business. But I think all that being said, the best way for our business to leverage Instagram is to use a platform that's already a little bit more seasoned, like TikTok, to help you think of ideas to create content on Instagram, but then to be thinking like "How can I get them off of Instagram to somewhere else", because we got to answer the second half of that question, which is what do you want them to do next? Now I want to collect email addresses. So if you are just finding this episode, go check out 182 where we're talking about email collection, but an email open rate, why it's so important. But I'm using things like TikTok to help you with your inspiration, should help you leverage your business and also just create larger awareness.
Christian [00:18:51] I think right off the bat, when IG Reels came out, I would see a lot of TikTok stuff, even videos straight up from TikTok that had the TikTok logo and everything.
Aaron [00:19:01] Oh yeah.
Christian [00:19:01] But I think just looking at what they're doing and seeing how you can incorporate your product or, you know, your brand or whatever into those videos is what was truly going to catapult you inside of IG Reels because I don't think a lot of people on Instagram they might not be on TikTok, you know, they could be completely different audiences for you.
Christian [00:19:27] So you go in on TikTok to look for ideas and when you post it on IG Reels just to your audience that never seen or heard of TikTok is going to feel very fresh, unique, original, and just sort of like doing a little bit of remake of some of the things that you've already seen that work really well instead of TikTok.
Aaron [00:19:44] Yeah.
Christian [00:19:44] So I think, it's yes, if you need ideas download TikTok and start watching some of the videos from brands. I think one of the great things that TikTok does is the algorithm and how well it recommends you content based on what you watched and like. So once you start, you kind of get past some of the dancing videos of teenagers and stuff, you'll actually start seeing some of the things that you like. You start liking them, actually watching those videos and TikTok will take care of you. And it's I mean, it's absolutely incredible. So hopefully IG Reels will be somewhat of the same where that discoverability aspect and the algorithm will get better.
Christian [00:20:27] But yeah, I think taking inspiration from a different platform and what's working at a great place to start.
Aaron [00:20:34] All right, and if you guys are a local business owner and you want help with generating more leads online, you probably already saw the video earlier.
Aaron [00:20:42] But it's just a quick reminder that you can grab our free training on how to attract, qualify and convert more leads for your business.
Aaron [00:20:50] Just click below around here, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast it should be in the show notes.
Aaron [00:20:58] But thank you guys so much for listening and watching this episode. Hope it was super valuable for you and really go out there and you do something because listening to it is great.
Aaron [00:21:08] I don't want you to stop your car or whatever you're doing right now, but just make sure that you get back there and you go out and test it because one thing that I do with my own personal Instagram is just always test different things, different filters, different captions, times of day, whether to do Reels, IG TV or whatever else. It's always good to be testing new things. So just go out there and create your first Instagram Reels and then go over to Instagram and tag us so you can screenshot or tag us in your Instagram Reels or whatever. We will check it out, we will comment, we will like it as well just to engage with you and just, you know, thank you for listening for the podcast.
Aaron [00:21:46] But, just go out there and do the Instagram Reels so you can actually start testing for your business and leverage this.
Aaron [00:21:55] If you guys are listening for the very first time, please make sure you hit subscribe. We come out with new episodes every single week to help local businesses generate more leads and sales online. If have you been listening for a while please make sure that you leave us an honest rating and review on Apple podcast. This helps us reach more people and find out exactly what we need to do to create this podcast and make it better for you. Hope you guys have an awesome rest of your week and we will see you on another episode of The Marketing Natives.
Narrator [00:22:22] The Marketing Natives podcast is a production of Bit Branding.
