Instagram Reels

How to get 1K followers on Instagram in 15 seconds

Have you heard about “Instagram Reels” but you don’t know exactly what they are?

You know that you can grow your Instagram account really fast with Reels, but you don’t know how to create them, how to add sound, music, voiceover, and text?

You would like to create your first viral reel but you can’t figure out how?

In this article, you’ll find out everything you need to know about this cool feature that Instagram has already added

In the end, you’ll be a real expert on Instagram reels and you’ll be ready to create your first viral reel.

Instagram reels are at the moment the best way to earn thousands and thousands of new followers EVERY SINGLE DAY

It’s something so rare on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, where your reach is very limited, that you have to take advantage of them as soon as possible

So make sure to read the full article, maybe read it twice if necessary, write notes, and then take action, because, if you want to grow on Instagram, Reels are probably the biggest opportunity of your life.

What we’ll cover in this article:

What are Instagram Reels
Why you need to create Instagram Reels
What you should post

What to do before creating your Reel

How to create your #1 Reel
4 things you want to avoid

If this is the first article you read on my blog, first of all, welcome!

I’m glad you’re here and if you’re interested in growing your page, making money on Instagram, buying followers, and many other interesting topics, make sure to look around the blog, and maybe you’ll find something that you need and could be useful

Now, let's start with the actual tutorial

what are instagram reels?

After a little bit of testing on other platforms, finally, on August 5th, Instagram released a new feature called “Instagram Reels”.

It’s a new way on Instagram to find and create short entertaining videos, with music, text, voiceover, and images combined.

Very similar to the TikTok video format (almost the same, most TikTok videos can be easily uploaded on Instagram as Reels)

So now, all creators can produce 15 second long videos that are really engaging and powerful

Many big brands like Louis Vitton have started to use Instagram Reels since the first day, with really great results!

These kinds of formats are really powerful and they grab the viewer's attention like anything else: they are designed to keep every human being on the platform as long as possible!

I don’t know you, but one day I spent an entire afternoon scrolling through these amazing videos without even noticing the hours that passed!

And I think that also many of you have had similar experiences

So it’s really important to take control of this powerful tool to grow your audience faster than everyone!

Instagram learned the lessons: during the quarantine, TikTok blew up and many users spent more time on TikTok than on Instagram.

Then, they finally added this feature also on their platform, to keep as many users as possible on their app and maintaining their audience

Instagram has done this before: if you remember, not long ago, Snapchat blew up thanks to the filters on their story.

So, what have they done?

They replicate the Snapchat filters and the majority of users returned on Instagram to use the story posts!

Now they are doing the same thing with Reels

Why do you need to create Reels?

Well, every time Instagram releases a new feature, it pushes it like crazy.

This is because he wants that everybody starts using this feature in their profile every day

Let’s try to go to your explore page: what is the first thing you see?

Yes, probably it's a reel!

Then Instagram has also added a central button dedicated to Reels, to make it impossible for the users to ignore this feature!

Even if you are searching for a hashtag, one of the first things that come up is most likely a reel.

The functionalities are similar to the ones of TikTok: you can like, share or save the Reel.

If you click on the 3 dots, you can save, copy the link and share it again

They officially said that the reach of reels is greater than the one of traditional posts: you have the opportunity to show your content in front of millions of new people with a little effort!

By posting reels, you can spread your brand all over the world, attracting people that otherwise you wouldn’t have reached and make more sales and money!

The algorithm is pushing Reels so hard because they NEED the success of this feature to gain their audience back!

And we’re talking of millions and millions of people that now are spending more time in TikTok!

On the other hand, there are not still too many creators that are publishing good Instagram reels, especially because they don’t know exactly how to create their Reels and how to make them go viral.

This is the law of supply and demand!

There is a lot of demand from the Algorithm for new and engaging reels, but not so many people are uploading them.

So, if you understand how to create them, you could easily succeed and your page will explode!

It’s fundamental for you to hopping up on this trend as soon as possible because once Instagram will get back its audience, it’ll stop pushing so hard on the Instagram reels

Little note

If you're a private profile, only people who are currently following you will be able to see your Instagram Reels

If you want to grow your profile and take full advantage of this feature, you’ve to switch your profile to "public".

Otherwise, your reels can’t go viral and being viewed all around the globe.

This a thing that you always have to keep in mind

So, now that you fully understand what Instagram Reels are and why they are fundamental for you to grow on Instagram, let’s talk about: what should you post?

what should you post?

The #1 thing you need to know is that Instagram has an audience demographic very different from the TikTok ones.

What does it mean?

Well, a video that blew up on TikTok could fail on Instagram Reels

Why?

Because maybe this video has been seen mostly by teenagers on TikTok, but on Instagram, a lot of adults could not appreciate that and end up ignoring the video or even unfollow you!

This is particularly the case of TikTok dances and challenges in general that are addressed to a younger audience.

So be careful when you post the same video on TikTok and Instagram because it could be easily successful on one platform and completely fail on the other one.

I’ve seen many videos on TikTok going viral, receiving tons of likes and engaging, but, once uploaded on Instagram, don’t receive more than 100 likes!

So, always keep in mind who is your target and your audience on each platform

Instagram itself has Revealed that the Reels that provide

Value (i.e. teach something useful that your audience need)
Inspiration (i,e start a trend that others can follow)
Entertainment (i.e. delight people, grab their attention, make them laugh, or have a surprise or a twist)

Have the potential of exploding and going viral

So, in your Reels, you should always aim to teach something interesting to people, inspire a new trend or make them laugh, sad, or whatever emotion you want to generate

If your video comes under one of these 3 subsects, it’s more likely to go viral.

And by viral I mean millions of views and thousands of likes!

In that way, Instagram hasn’t exactly “copied” TikTok, but has personalized this format for its users, to keep them as more time as possible on its platform

Instead of doing a funny trendy challenge, you should upload videos like “ten-way to save money”, or “the 5 most expensive house in the world”, something like that

You should always aim for an audience older than the TikTok one

(Obviously it depends on your niche, this is just a general suggestion)

Aesthetics

Another very important tip that you have to keep in mind: Instagram is almost all about aesthetics!

It’s probably the cleanest, easy to use, and visually appealing platform out there.

So, when you are creating your Instagram reels, try to combine the content that you could post on Instagram or Pinterest with the format of a 15 seconds TikTok video.

Here some tips:

Add text, images, and camera effect to make your content as engaging as possible
Use vertical video
Use music from the Instagram music library or original audio you created/founded on Reels

I know that it could be hard at the beginning to understand and figure out how to do everything combined to make your video going viral

So stick around till the end because I’ll explain to you everything you need, step by step

What to do before start creating Reels

Ok, now you know:

What are Instagram Reels

Why the algorithm is pushing them so heavily

How you can benefit from them

Then, the next step is to learn how to create your first viral reel

The first thing you need to do before creating any videos is to do your research

Look at what your competitors, influencers, and big pages in general are doing, what makes their content and, in particular, their Instagram Reels so attractive.

Understand how you could inspire to their most successful videos and trying to do them in your way

Share content that is currently doing well, always adding your personality but remember, don’t just jump on a trend only because it is going viral: your content should add value, entertain or inspire people!

The important thing is to not copy other people’s reel,s but try to replicate their successful format

For example, if you find that a very informative or entertaining format, like, I don’t know, “5 things to do before dying”, is doing well, do a similar Instagram Reels and you’ll have good chances of going viral as well

(If you’re running a theme page it’s a little bit different, you can Check Here the full article on how to create your theme page and make money without showing your face and reposting other people’s content)

Bonus tip:

before creating any kind of video, always ask yourself:

What kind of emotions I want to share and
What I want to teach to my audience

Because if you can answer these 2 questions and you’re creating a Reel based on a format that is going viral, you’ll be very likely to succeed!

So now, it’s time to create your first Reel

How to create your first Reel

The first thing you need to do is to open your reels creator by tapping on the central button and then the camera at the top right

(maybe when you’ll read this article, Instagram could have changed the layout, but the important thing is to open the reels creator)

Here you can create or upload your video from your gallery and on the left side you can:

Add your music

Modify the speed (making it in slow motion or quick)

Add filters

Use the timer

Always keep in mind that these videos are at most 15 seconds long, so try to summarize all your content in the amount of time available

Now it’s time to record your video

Here I can’t go over all niches to suggest to you the Best Instagram Reels Video to upload.

You have to:

#1 know your audience, what they like, what they dislike, and so on

#2 look at your competitors: what are they doing, what is the format that is performing the best?

Try to replicate their success without copy their videos: keep your style unique and independent

#3 test a lot

You shouldn’t expect to go viral at your first Reels: it could happen, of course, but it’s not the rule

You have to test different type of videos, filters, and formats to find the absolute best and then stick with it as long as it works (remember, always keep testing new types of Reels, but the main focus should be on the winner one)

Instead, if you have a theme page and you’re posting other people’s content, I would recommend you to focus a lot on Reels.

Ideally, 50%-75% of your content should be Instagram Reels, and this is because they are the main factor that could make your page grow exponentially.

I had a small page with around 5K followers, nothing special, but one of my Reels, which I reposted from other creators, went viral and helped me gaining around 150 followers extra each day!

Not bad right for a page like this

If you don’t know what theme pages are, how you can make money from them, and how you can repost other people’s content, Check This Article

If you’re a personal brand page or a content creator, try to find something entertaining, inspirational, or valuable for your audience and record a short video.

It doesn’t need to be 15 seconds long: it’s better a 5 seconds video that people watch till the end than a 15 seconds one that your viewer interrupt at half

You always need to be engaging to attract the viewer's attention as fast as possible.

Maybe your first Instagram Reel won’t be perfect, that’s fine.

Start with a simple format (a normal video with a nice text and background music) and then keep creating Reels

By the time you’ll become an absolute expert, I promise you!

So, now that you have your video recorded, upload it on your Instagram Reels page

You’ll see a pink bar that shows how much of the video time frame you’ve used and how much you’ve left

When you have uploaded the video or finished recording it, you can start making your reel more visually appealing and attractive for the viewer, by adding effects, gif, text, and music.

When it comes to text, Instagram has updated its text formats

Some of them are very nice, so I’d suggest you to try them out to change a little bit from your normal style and maybe add your personality

how to edit your video

There are different types of Instagram Reels, but the most common ones have:

a music background
or a voice-over background

Let’s find out how to edit both

If you want to add music while you’re recording your video:

Click the audio button on the left

Select your Song

Choose what part of the song you want to use dragging the little box at the bottom

Press done

Now that you’ve chosen the song, you can select your filter.

Pick the one that fits the type and the style of the video you wanna record

Then, you can decide to use a timer.

Click the timer button and then select how much time you want to register your video

Once you’ve chosen your timer’s duration, it won’t start until you don’t tap the filter or the record button.

After you tapped a 3-second countdown will start

3..2..1..and you’re ready to record your first Instagram Reels!

Let’s try it now, so you’ll see if you’ve understood everything you need to know to create it

Even if your first Reel isn't perfect, you can learn it only by practicing

If you don’t want to record your video while the song is playing, you can also add your music on the top of the video you already recorded

So what you’ve to do:

Click the Instagram Reels button
Select your video from the gallery (you can crop it and select the part of the video that you want by dragging the box under your video)

Click the checkmark (or add, it depend on your Instagram version)

Click the music button and select the audio you want to add

to make sure that the audio is being added successfully check if there’s the song cover on the top left of your screen

Now you can upload your video or save it on your smartphone.

Always remember that if you save it from Instagram, you’ll save the video without the music you added for copyright reasons

If you save your draft, it will appear with your other reels in the Instagram Reels tab

You can also select your cover photo like on TikTok dragging the box at the bottom of the video

How to edit a Video with a Voice-over?

Well, technically, you can’t record a voice-over using the Instagram app, so you have to use a voice recording app.

There are many free voice recorder software out there: I use Inshot, but you can use whatever app you want.

Using this app is really simple, trust me, but if you don't know at all how to edit videos and record your voice, watch this YT tutorial first

Once you've edited the video, you can export it and...Congrats, you've already produced your first Instagram Reel: be proud of yourself!

Now that you understood how to create Instagram Reels, you'll learn what you have not to do to get your videos viral

4 thing to avoid

Now you know how to create your first Instagram Reel, but did you know that Instagram has explained exactly what you need to avoid to make your content going viral?

Here’s what you have not to do:

Avoid blurry and low-resolution content: make sure that your video has the highest quality possible

Don’t repost content that is visibly recycled from another app (i.e contain logos or watermarks)

So basically: don’t post TikTok videos on Instagram!

Avoid videos with a border around them (because it could decrease the quality of the video)

Don’t post Reels with the majority of video covered by text (you can add text to make your content more engaging, but the video should still be visible)

Keep in mind that these types of Reels won’t be recommended so often to people who don’t follow you in places like the Reels tab

But they will still be shown to your followers, if they meet the Instagram Community Guidelines.

So if you’re trying to grow your account, avoid all of these 4 mistakes or Instagram won’t promote your content and you'll lose tons of potential followers and customers!

Yes, you could find a low-quality video with a TikTok watermark going viral and receiving thousands of likes, but it will become increasingly rare!

conclusion

I hope you found this article useful

You’ve learned everything you need to know to create your first viral Reels, how to edit them for free and what to avoid to be promoted by the Instagram Algorithm

This could help your page to grow faster and faster and maybe, in the future, you’ll be able to generate a full-time income thanks to the initial reels boost.

Don’t think that’s impossible: hundreds if not thousands of people have done this, so you could do it as well.

Instagram and social media in general are some of the most amazing opportunities of our life, so make sure you don’t miss it out!

You could quit your 9-5 job, travel the world, and have more free time working with just your phone!

If you want to learn exactly what you need to grow on Instagram, make sure to read this full free tutorial

Links available on the page could be affiliate links: it means that if you purchase something using this link I could get a commission

It doesn't cost anything to you and if you find the article useful, it could be a free way to support this blog

Thanks so much and have a great day!

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