Short video clips are making waves in social media platforms, which makes acquiring instagram reels like quite important for effective social media marketing (SMM). Instagram image posts overshadow Instagram Reels, as they make up about 42% of all fresh Instagram content for the day. Yet it has been noted in recent survey studies that Reels garner the most number of Likes; denoting that the short videos are reaching the right audience.
Instagram Reels and Their Use in Instagram Marketing
Even more impressive is that the Reels Likes result in Interactions and Engagements, which is significant in Instagram Marketing. Likes that result in interactions and engagements can greatly influence the position of an image or video post in the platform’s Feed Ranking System.
In addition to the Default feeds appearing in the account of every IG user, video clips posted as Reels content, will have related feed posts appearing in the Explore page.
The Explore page is for all categories and all IG users, as its function is to furnish information about the latest Reels posts that could be of interest to any IG user, regardless of whether or not the video content creator is a follower or is being followed by an IG audience.
Why are Reels Popular?
Apparently, short video clips have found favour among Gen Zs and Gen Alpha, many of whom are also TikTokers. Instagram Reels are snappy, having the characteristics of being brief but concise about information shared with other users who have similar interests for such topics. Information provided could be beneficial or useful for the target audience; or have great relevance to a brand of product or service being promoted by the Reels video clip.
Some examples of popular Reels video clips include demos of how the content creator does creative work; or how he practises to achieve skills-improvement, or show behind-the-scene scenes
Even YouTube has Shorts to offer its social media users, to keep up with the hype over the use of short form video content. Yet compared to Instagram Reels, YouTube clips are shorter, lasting only for 60 seconds. Reels can be as long as 90 seconds, which is equivalent to one and a half minutes. Yet YouTube Shorts boast of being high resolution video clips.
Still, interested audiences looking for a more polished version of Instagram Reels can view them as video format in Facebook Reels. The FB Reels content is also available in FB’s Watch page, complete with audio, music and Augmented Reality (AR) effect whenever applicable.
Instagram is highly reputed for its core focus on content with aesthetic appeal, which is one of the reasons why social media netizens between ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 are more inclined to view Insta Reels over TikTok. TikTok video clips are fantastic but they are mostly raw, unpolished and less likely to be structured.