If you signed up for our newsletter, then you should have received access to the Instagram Reels Guide.
This guide includes 5 tips for creating your first reel. Your first reel (or even your 10th) does NOT have to be perfect, or great, or even good… just make it.
Choose a subject, anything at all. Make a reel of your morning cup of coffee. Post it. And then make another. You will get better. That’s how life works.
1. Explore
Spend your free time exploring Reels and saving the audio from the ones you love - that way you can refer to that audio later when creating your own.
Do this by tapping the song title (or it may say “original audio” in the bottom left hand corner of the Reel), and then it will take you to a screen where you can tap: SAVE AUDIO.
2. Plan
Use the timer to plan your clips! A Reel can be up to 30 seconds, so you can set the time to break that up in segments - for example: 3, 10 second clips.
If you’re a clothing line, perhaps each clip could feature your “top 3 ways to style a XXX”.
3. Upload
When creating a Reel, you can either film them directly in the app or choose to upload from your camera reel.
Use apps to create your content, and then upload the videos to IG as a Reel. Apps that are perfect for this are: Life Lapse & InShot.
4. Make Movie Magic
What makes Reels so fun and interesting are the transitions! You can make anything appear, disappear, or move via “stop-motion”.
Again, this can be done by recording directly in the app by using the “align” button on the left side of the screen.
Shoot your first few seconds, and then for the next section tap “align” so that you can properly align everything in the next shot to look like things were magically moved.
Alternatively, you can use the app Life Lapse. When you download it, there are several short videos that walk you through how to create your first stop motion.
I HIGHLY recommend this app.
5. Maximize Views
Who is your audience? Make the first few seconds of your Reel grab their attention, then make it engaging enough to KEEP their attention, and finally ask them to engage.
Is there something trending? For example, the Bernie Sanders memes… Jump in. Remember, perfection is the enemy of progress.
Just make a Reel, and then make another one, and then make another one… You will get better. TRUST ME. Waiting until you have a grand idea or a perfectly aligned shot will get your nowhere. Literally.
Just make content, everyday. And don’t forget to add hashtags, tags, etc. to your caption and before hitting publish.
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