How to make instagram reels viral
How to Go Viral With Instagram Reels
By Helena Alcoverro, on 21 January 2022
Instagram Reels allow users to consume content that they enjoy without leaving Instagram. This feature was launched to compete with TikTok, which has become one of the trendiest social networks for organic content and digital advertising.
But what exactly do Instagram Reels consist of?
What Is Instagram Reels and Why Should You Use It?
Instagram Reels is all about creating and consuming short videos, specifically those that are about 15 to 30 seconds long. You can grow your account quickly by using them, although to do so, your content should be original and engaging. It's also been said that Instagram has made changes to its algorithm to give greater visibility to accounts that are using Reels, so that's another reason to give this feature a try.
12 Tips for Going Viral With Your Instagram Reels Videos
Reels have been on Instagram for a couple of years now, so it's becoming harder to make them stand out because the competition is increasing. However, don't let that stop you from creating them. We'll provide you with some useful tips and tricks to create short videos and go viral on this network.
1. Focus on a Specific Niche or Topic
One of the ways to gain followers and go viral on Instagram is to find a theme or category on Instagram and post about it regularly.
Instagram's algorithm uses machine learning, so it will show your posts to an audience that is already interested in the topic you are posting about. This is why it is so important to choose a theme or niche and stick to it!
2. Include an Attention-Grabbing Hook
Currently, thousands of Reels are published daily, so to go viral, content must be really entertaining. In order to stand out, add a personal touch that makes it unique and original. The first few seconds of the video are key to capturing the audience's attention so it is important to make them stand out from the beginning.
3. Make Them the Right Size
The optimal video size is 1080 x 1920 pixels.
This allows viewers to see a video at the maximum resolution, with an aspect ratio of 9:16. This means your video should be recorded vertically.
4. Do Not Include TikTok Watermarks
There was a very clear objective when Instagram Reels was launched: to encourage users to choose Instagram over TikTok for video posts. Instagram's algorithm is able to detect TikTok's watermarks. To give your videos a chance of positioning well, it's necessary to remove those watermarks.
5. Include Text in Your Video
It is estimated that more than 80% of Instagram users watch videos without sound, whether they are Stories or Reels. So, it's a very good idea to add captions or text that can help viewers understand the content without audio. Text will also allow people with hearing difficulties to understand the video.
6. Center Text in the Middle So That It's Viewable in Grid Mode
Since Reels can be accessed and watched from the "Reels" tab or the In-Feed view, it is important to always make sure to place your text in the middle of your video, the "safe zone", so that it won't be cut off.
7. Include a Call to Action
A call-to-action should always be included to encourage the audience to interact with your videos. This is the best way to get to know your audience's impressions and opinions. You can then create content according to their preferences. This does not mean moving away from your chosen theme or idea, rather, thinking about how you can present it in a way that appeals to people.
8. Use Viral Elements
In order to give your content the best chance of going viral, you can use elements that are trending, such as songs or challenges. This means keeping up to date with trends and observing how the public is reacting to them in order to implement them (as long as they fit within your category or theme).
9. Use Hashtags to Promote Your Content
Hashtags are a key element of any kind of post on Instagram. This is because they help Instagram's algorithm understand the type of content in your video and then show it to users who may be interested.
Hashtags must be chosen very carefully. The most popular ones are not always the best since they have more competition.
10. Create a Custom Reel Cover
Creating a custom reel cover can help your video stand out from the very beginning. This is the image that the user will see before clicking on it.
The cover will add value to the content and will make it much more appealing and attractive. It will also give continuity to your profile.
11. Publish Your Reel at Peak Viewing Times
Not every hour is a good time to publish. Neither is every day. It's important to know the times when most of your target audience is connected and available.
Once you determine the best days and times that will generate the most views, schedule your posts accordingly. This way, you'll have a higher engagement rate.
12. Share Your Reels on Your Instagram Feed and Stories
To give your Reel greater visibility, share it on your Instagram feed and in your Stories.
The idea is for followers not to miss the post.
Going viral on Instagram Reels is possible, though the chances of it happening overnight are pretty low. The most important thing to focus on is regularly creating interesting, eye-catching content and using all the tricks we've mentioned in this article.
How to Create Viral Instagram Reels: 10 Tips
Are you new to Reels? The good news is almost everyone is. Creating viral Reels starts with creating bingeworthy content, but doesn't end there. Instagram Reels are a hot trend now. Chances are you've witnessed them in your newsfeed at some point or another. They're basically a quick, interesting clip made up of one or multiple photos and videos.
The best part? Anybody can create them, regardless of their editing experience. Here are 10 tips to help you ace Instagram Reels.
1. Remove Watermarks
To give your videos the best chances of performing well, we advise you to remove watermarks from the videos you want to upload.
This could be watermarks of editing apps you're using or other platforms where you're making the videos.
Many Instagram users make the mistake of uploading videos with TikTok watermarks. Instagram's algorithm can detect TikTok's watermarks in videos. To increase the likelihood of your videos appearing in Instagram's Explore section, remove any watermarks.
2. Use Trending Music
When you're creating an Instagram Reel, look for songs that are popular and trending. If you know of a song that is trending and is likely to go viral online, use that song. If you can’t find a song like that, simply choose one that fits your theme.
Adding music to your Reels lets you keep up with trends, while making you more discoverable on the platform. You can also be a part of fun challenges that Instagram releases from time to time.
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3.
Ensure Your Video Is High-Quality The most successful Instagram Reels tend to be the ones that are professionally edited. That's not always the case, but the most important difference between viral and non-viral Instagram Reels is the quality of the video.
A good quality video has two things: good lighting and high resolution. If you're using your phone, make sure you have sufficient light. If you're filming in an indoor setting, consider buying a ring light, which softens the shadows and makes for a better image.
Likewise, if you're shooting outdoors, try to film during times of the day when there is less sunlight, or at least avoid filming directly in the sun.
This one is a no-brainer. If you don't violate community guidelines through your posts, Reels, and stories, you have a better shot at going viral. Or else, you might face a temporary or permanent ban. Why risk getting into trouble?
Respect intellectual property rights, don't post anything related to nudity unless it's for medical purposes, and steer clear of terrorism, bigotry, organized crime, hate groups, or fake news.
As a creator on Instagram, you should always be up-to-date with the Community Guidelines.
5. Include Closed Captions
Keep in mind that many Instagram users watch videos without sound, so providing captions or text will help them understand the content if there is no audio. This will also allow people who are hard of hearing to understand the video.
Influencers on Instagram can find it difficult to create captions that reflect the mood of the video or add necessary information; they may even omit captions altogether. However, when they make the extra effort, they make their Reels more discoverable while increasing engagement.
With video captions, users can search for keywords that appear in the captions, rather than being restricted to searching for hashtags or picture captions. This searchability helps make Reels go viral.
6. Optimize On-Screen Text Placement
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While closed captions are great for helping viewers decipher what you're saying in an Instagram Reel, adding text to your videos can add another dimension. If you're sharing tips on photography, for example, you may want to put your tips into a text format so that you can use trending music instead of your voice for the sound.
However, you must be mindful of its on-screen placement. By this, we mean that you'll want to make sure your video fits within the 9:16 viewing aspect ratio, while also ensuring that any text you're adding to your Reels will fit within the 4:5 viewing aspect ratio. That way, when viewers are scrolling and come across your Reels, they'll be able to see any text you've added.
Because videos can be viewed from both the Reels tab and the In-Feed view, it's important to place your text in the middle of your video.
By putting the text in this "safe zone", you can ensure that it won't get cut off.
7. Shoot Vertically and Add Your Own Reel Cover
Video files can be uploaded either in a vertical or horizontal format, but it's ideal to shoot and upload videos vertically since they will then take up the entire screen of the mobile device.
Creating a custom Reel cover image can also help your video stand out and pull users in to watch it. In addition to giving your Reels a distinct identity, custom covers can make your video more eye-catching when it is viewed as a thumbnail. Remember to create your cover in the same format that you're shooting the video in.
8. Do Fun Transitions
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If you want to stand out on Instagram and make your Reels look more professional, learn how to master transitions.
You can use a variety of transitions to spice up your video, including the snap and cut/jump ones. To create these, you need to master two simple tools: the timer and the align tool.
To make a jump cut, you must first record or select several video clips. Then, you need to piece together the segments and align the frames.
9. Target Peak Viewing Times
If you've been creating Instagram video Reels, then at some point, you've experienced the frustration of wanting to reach more people. It's crucial to track your audience's activity in order to discover the best times of day when you should upload new Instagram content.
If you upload Reels when your audience is most active on Instagram, there's a considerable chance that they'll go viral, provided your content is original, interactive, and fun.
10. Feature User-Generated Content
By drawing inspiration from other artists, you can mix it with your own objectives and come up with fresh ideas.
If you've scrolled through Instagram Reels recently, you might have noticed a few songs that are getting a lot of plays. Using trends to your advantage is great, but taking risks can prove even more fruitful.
You can also do remixes of the Reels done by other Instagram users and influencers. That'll help you strike the right tune with the influencer community as well as your followers.
Related: These Tips Will Help You Get Noticed on Instagram
Making Viral Instagram Reels Isn't That Difficult
It's important to note that there is no magic formula for creating an Instagram Reel worth millions of views. Many things will collectively contribute to the reach a video gets.
The question remains—how do you actually go about making viral Instagram Reels? An elaborate caption to make people laugh, a unique angle to entice people's attentiveness, or even a trending topic to make people want to share; all these elements come together to create a video that's viral and original.
Instagram virus: how to make a popular post
Since the whole world is sitting at home because of one virus, it's time to think about creating your own contagious element - viral content. People are spending more time on social media, so now is the best opportunity to create a post that everyone will share.
A real viral post is, most often, a series of accidents and a fortunate combination of circumstances that allowed the publication to disperse. And although it is impossible to control this, there are aspects that will help your material become quite popular:
Unfamiliar for the target audience
Your subscribers and target audience are used to about the same “tone” of content that everyone follows in a certain niche. Presentation, images, meanings - everything is about the same for everyone. But when clearly different content breaks into this conditional silence, it attracts attention. Remember the same “Pushechnaya” from SETTERS, whose account was not run like a typical bakery.
It is not necessary to wait for an occasion and a topic that should burst out all over the world. Getting coverage among your target audience is what is important for commercial social networks, and moving away from the usual foundations will already help to do this. nine0003
News agenda
You can take both public news and touch on a topic from your industry. Well-executed situational content always gets enough attention. This works because the news itself already has some traffic and interest, so it would be appropriate to enter this stream and get some of the coverage for yourself. The main thing to remember about three points:
- do not touch "black" topics (or be careful with them, as there is a high risk of running into negativity)
- respond quickly (no one will pay attention to the situation in the old way of information, so do not delay the implementation of such content) Battle with a competitor
This does not mean conflicts and unreasonable attacks on colleagues in the shop, but rather friendly jokes.
Everyone is familiar with the confrontation between car brands, fast food restaurants, mobile operators and others. Albeit not on such a scale, but this technique can be used on your own. The audience likes to follow the development of such stories. Therefore, conflicts between bloggers are so popular on the Internet, and most films are built on the struggle of two sides. In marketing, there are even known cases of artificial conflicts for the sake of PR. So the option works. nine0003
Post design
Since we are chasing reach, the publication should look attractive. No one will share a post with a worse design than WhatsApp congratulations. Here again we take into account the tastes of the target audience and decide whether we want to stand out with the presentation. If yes, then do not forget to explicitly indicate whose post this is. If you remember about the same “Pyshechnaya”, then the product itself was everywhere in the photo - donuts. If they are removed, then such content will not even be thought that it belongs to a bakery.
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Visibility of the post
The title and image should reflect the "sharpness" of the topic and develop it in the post itself. Otherwise, the publication will be scrolled, and your attempt to make a viral post will look like an uncertain answer from a schoolboy in an undertone. How exactly to highlight it is up to you, but the idea itself is worth keeping in mind.
Touch the emotions
Here you should mainly use either joy or anger/indignation. In the first case, people will share because of "look how funny/bold". In the second, the user's personal opinion will serve as motivation, where he will show in every possible way how he does not agree with the author or simply indicates an alternative view. The former are easier to work with, but the latter can bring more reach due to the activity under the post. nine0003
Total
The purpose of such a post, most often, is simply to get attention for your brand. But it is much better if the publication also has an additional purpose: to sell, inform, benefit, and so on.
Having done all this correctly, the post will not only spread across the network, but will also affect other indicators.
5 tips to create a viral video
Want to create a viral video? There is no safe path, no bumps and pits, but here are 5 great tips that can increase your chances of success. nine0003
It's hard to resist the pull of a viral video! We specifically talked about one such extremely successful video that was able to increase site sales by more than 13600% (we didn’t believe it at first either), so watch and be inspired by this viral video and read an article about it here.
Follow our 5 tips below for you, but of course no one guarantees you success, but it will really help you increase your chances of making a truly viral video. nine0003
1. Don't overdo it
The best viral videos are quite modest, but they are all quite creative. This means that it is simply impossible to put a lot of pressure on the audience.
We have all seen a lot of supposedly “viral marketing”, which “pressed” the viewer through the measure with something funny and idiotic, and in such a way that it is sometimes even embarrassing to look at.
2. Explore YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Look at other people's viral videos and analyze them, why did it become so popular, what is it about that everyone likes, etc.? In addition, there are a lot of different articles and books on the web on how to best promote videos on YouTube, Vimeo and other media resources. They will also help you increase your chances of success. nine0003
3. Know your market
Who are you trying to impress? Are you just trying to raise your prestige and visibility, or do you want to show and promote some aspect of your work or product? That is, have a clear understanding of what you want to show in a viral video.
4. Show it to the right audience
Simply uploading a viral video to YouTube is not enough.
You need to be sure that the sites you need will host it, so be as close as possible to key players (for example, some online media or a popular portal related to your type of activity). nine0003
5. Ignore this advice
Marketers may think that there is some kind of magic pill, but there is simply no golden rule to make your video viral by applying it. Sometimes this happens spontaneously and just an everyday photo or video that you upload will gain thousands or even millions of views.
So be creative and heed this five-point tip, and then you can make a really popular viral video. And if you want us to help you with our skills and many years of experience in this, then go to "Contacts" here and simply fill in the "Your name" and "Name" fields, but also indicate in another field what you want to see in your viral video. If you do not yet see your video in your imagination, then you can safely contact us for advice by clicking here.
