Reels. You know them (probably), you love them (well…). Regardless of how you feel about the emergence of short-form video as the leading social content medium, it’s clear that it’s here to stay. Let’s go through a few reasons why you should care about incorporating social videos into your business’s social media strategy, beyond just the fact that “everyone else is doing it so, so should I” - the fact of the matter is, there’s a reason Instagram Reels are netting such high engagement, and you can very effectively use that to your business’s advantage.
Discoverability
Not only does Instagram’s algorithm favour any new features they go live with (remember how many IGTVs were being pushed to everyone when they launched?), but Reels simply by virtue of their aspect ratio take up more real estate on your phone screen as you browse. Take the explore page, for instance - your eyes are instantly drawn to the larger-sized thumbnails (fingernails?) of the portrait-oriented Reels, as opposed to the small square thumbnails of regular static image posts. If you really want to make the most of Instagram’s inherent favouring of early adopters, ensure your content is high quality (that means nothing blurry, pixelated or carrying the TikTok watermark - Instagram doesn’t like recycled content!) and that you’re posting consistently. Watch your ability to reach new audiences accelerate impressively.
Shareability
Think of Reels as permanent Stories. Stories took off in a big way for Instagram, so much so that we saw the feature mimicked by platforms like YouTube with Shorts and even Twitter with Fleets (though they didn’t last), plus we often forget that Stories actually started on Snapchat. Yep, Instagram well and truly took Stories and ran with them. Are we seeing a similar thing happen with TikToks being appropriated through Instagram Reels?
It’s likely, but regardless it’s clear that short-form is continuing to win out as the most widely consumed and shared content on social media. If Stories reigned supreme as the cultural reset that they were for social media, it stands to reason that a permanent version of them will achieve high shareability.
Personality
Reels are a quick and effective way to showcase so much more of your brand personality, giving audiences something real and authentic to connect with. Social video continues to win out in terms of engaging audiences by giving us visuals and audio, and the often-interactive nature of Reels means that audiences feel like they’re really a part of a piece of content just by recognising the trend they use or having the subject of the video acknowledge the fourth wall. The amount of sheer personality that comes through in Reels gives audiences a clearer understanding of your brand positioning and is thus a great tool for brand awareness.
This triad of key benefits to using social video through Instagram Reels in your business - discoverability, shareability and personality - all work together to cement Reels as the superior social medium for your brand. But perhaps the truest power of Instagram Reels is their ability to pull the audience in; making your audience feel involved or engaged with your business should be the ultimate goal of your brand’s social media efforts, after all.
