This Reel strategy grew my account by 30k followers this year

In the past few months I went from having just over 30,000 followers on Instagram to 76,000 - and listen: I’m not using all the typical tips and hacks you hear. I don’t edit my Reels in the Reels editor, I’m not using a ton of hashtags, or being super specific about the time that I post at. And my top-performing videos aren’t necessarily even following trends! You don’t need to use all of those popular tactics to grow with Reels, and in fact, I think sometimes creators get so caught up in all those little tricks that it holds them back - because they miss out on implementing the strategies that actually help you grow.

So in this episode, I’m going to tell you how I make Reels that help you grow - Reels that get 20K, 50K, and even 100K views and healthy engagement. Let’s do it!

Let’s talk about Reels

The first thing you need to know is there are really two kinds of Reels that I use in my Instagram framework.

Trendy reels → I would describe these as those quick, punchy Reels that last about 7 seconds, have lots of visuals with text on the screen, and are set to trending audio.

Original reels → I think of original reels like a mini YouTube video. For me (and with my niche), these are usually educational, or sharing my opinion - and I include captions, title graphics, and b-roll.

So to start the creation process, you need ideas, right? This is honestly the part where more creators need to be spending their time. If you come up with a mediocre idea, no amount of adding hashtags, posting at the right time, or editing within the app is going to make you go viral. So, how do you come up with ideas that make you go viral? There are so many factors in vitality, but I’ve come up with a simplified framework to help you understand some ways you can come up with viral-worthy ideas, it’s the 3 Ts (because I’m a dork and love alliteration)!

The first T stands for Taboo. For something to be Taboo, I suggest…

Talking about something other people aren’t willing to.
Address a hot topic, share an unpopular opinion, or be transparent about a usually mysterious subject.

My personal example of this was the few Reels I have done about how much money I made in 2022, how much I spend in my business, and really anything disclosing my personal or business finances. Some folks aren’t super comfortable sharing their income. They may feel that they will be perceived as greedy or selfish if they reveal their income. They may also be worried that others will look down on them or treat them differently based on their income. But for me, because I talk about growing a content creation business, I feel like it’s my responsibility to be transparent about my income. By sharing my income, I am able to provide valuable insights and information to my community - so they truly know if this is the right path for them. So, though in some areas this is taboo, for me - I feel like it’s important and it doesn’t hurt that it also is a topic that tends to get a lot of traction. For you, in your niche, this might look completely different.

The second T stands for Timely: For something to be Timely, I suggest….

Addressing something that’s currently a big discussion in pop culture.
Utilize a current trend (music, sound bite, or format).

In this category, you’ll mostly create trendy reels, but original reels can be timely as well. My personal examples of this would be why you need to get on YouTube. This was an original piece of content I created about why YouTube is taking over social media, including TikTok. It talked about a lot of the new features YouTube had launched, like how YouTube Shorts are now monetized. It was definitely a timely piece of content. A Trendy example under this category would be my income streams (which can also be Taboo as well of course)!

The third, and final, T stands for Tangible Tips. For something to be Tangible Tips, I suggest…

Sharing helpful information that is quick and actionable, that’s highly relevant to your audience.
Making it so helpful that people keep coming back for more.

Some examples of me doing this would be my TikTok vs Reels Strategy or my Brand Deal Workflow Reel, these both provide actionable tips that someone can learn and apply in their own content creation business.

So when you need ideas, use this framework to help get you started. And trust me, any time that you were previously worrying about hashtags, and struggling with the Reels editor - instead, allot that time to this process, and then just use 3-5 hashtags, and edit using whatever platform helps you get it done faster and you’ll be much better off.

Let’s chat about filming

So I thought it would be helpful to talk about how I film. Let me tell you, I have tried so many different methods and after years of experience, I’ve got a process down that helps me be more efficient with filming.

If you’re a happy mobile user - please use your phone. It works for some people, just not me. Personally, since I’m a YouTuber girly and my natural workflow is to use a camera and then edit on my laptop, that’s just my preference, and what I find is easiest for me.

I honestly used to worry that my stuff would look ‘too high quality’ and that people wouldn’t engage with it, but I haven’t found that to be the case. I think as long as your delivery and editing style feels like it’s meant for short-form video, you’ll be good. Meaning, I am not just taking a YouTube video and cutting it into a vertical format, and slapping it on my Instagram. That’s a big no-no.

When getting ready to film, I set up my Manfrotto tripod and secure my Sony ZV-1 with the rode video micro on top, and then adjust the tripod so my camera is vertical (that’s a great benefit of this tripod - it’s made to film horizontally or vertically). I will have a link in the show notes that has all of the links to my favorite filming gear.

Then I just film like I film my YouTube videos. I talk to the camera, continuously film - and I’ll cut out mistakes later.

If I need any b-roll, which I highly recommend, I’ll gather that after I finish filming my a-roll (which if you’re not familiar with the terminology, a-roll is the “talking to the camera” footage and b-roll is the footage you might put on top of it, these clips usually are showing what you are doing, versus just talking about it.)

Let’s start editing

I want to talk to you about how I edit my Reels, but because this is such a visual process, I wanted to also recommend that you head over to my YouTube channel after this episode and check out my video - How I film & edit TikToks in 2023 | Batch create with me! - where I show you this process in a bit more detail. It says TikTok, but the process is the same!

As I mentioned before, I prefer using my laptop to edit my Reels, which for me means that I use Premiere Pro. This is my preferred method of editing both long-form and short-form content. Premiere Pro is my favorite editing platform for various reasons. The software's interface is user-friendly (and just what I am used to), making it easy for me to navigate and find the tools I need quickly. It also provides me with a high level of control over my projects. I can easily manipulate and edit my videos, audio, and images to create a polished final product. But - this doesn’t mean it’s right for you! You might have another preferred editing software that you use, especially if you are a fellow YouTuber. Or if you prefer using your phone, you can use the Instagram app or my preference is Adobe Rush, which is like a phone version of Premiere Pro, both are Adobe products. But let me actually explain how I edit my Reels.

First, let’s talk about Original Reels. I import the footage from my SD card, organize it on my hard drive, and open up my vertical content premiere pro template (I have a custom workspace that I made and have thought about making this as something you can purchase down the line, let me know if you’d be interested in that by shooting me a DM on Instagram.)

Then I just drag my clip into the timeline. before I honestly even play through it I just delete all the dead air, you can tell by where there are no audio waveforms. This makes it much faster because I don’t waste time watching myself read my script or pause to think. This is actually one of the main reasons I love editing on my computer, I save so much time doing this! That’s when I’ll watch through, and choose the best takes if I said some things more than once. I like to call this the “base edit” - so, once I am happy with the base edit - I’ll add some flair, which is usually adding titles, any helpful graphics, images, or b-roll.

Finally, and another reason I love Premiere Pro, I’ll use their auto-captioning feature to add subtitles. I never add background music (unless it’s for a brand deal and I need copyright-free music) because usually, I’ll add background music in the Reels editor.

Okay - so that’s the process for an original reel (very similar to editing a YouTube video) - but what do I do for trendy reels?

First, I need to be able to edit the music on my laptop, so I’ll screen record the trending audio I found on my phone and airdrop that screen recording to my laptop. Then I’ll go through my camera roll and find the clips that will work with this video. I actually have a little hack for this because Premiere Pro doesn’t play nice with iPhone footage. I will add all those clips to an album so they’re easy to find - then I’ll open Adobe Rush (like I mentioned earlier), import them, export the entire project, and then I’ll airdrop that to my laptop as well. Finally, I’ll drag it all into Premiere, where I can edit the b-roll clips from my phone to the music. I can add whatever text I want here, usually, I try to make it look as organically on Instagram as I can, and then I will delete the background music and export. So that way I can drop it into the Reel editor and the audio will match up perfectly with my edited Reel.

It’s finally time to publish

Once I have my edited reels ready to go, I usually airdrop them over to my phone - if you do not have an Apple device to use airdrop, you can also use something like Notion to easily pass your videos or images from your computer to your phone. And if you’re not using Notion to organize your content, you should look into it - I have a Content Calendar Template you can grab if you’re interested, and I will have it linked in the show notes.

Anyway, I also like to create Reels covers, either using a screenshot from the video or a photo I took specifically for the cover. I’ll throw a title on the cover in Photoshop using my brand font, and then I use my preset on them in Lightroom - and that’s how I get my consistent look for my covers, and I’ll airdrop them to my phone as well!

And then, drum roll please, I am finally ready to upload them to Instagram! This is a fairly standard procedure that I am sure most of you know, but just open up Instagram, hit the plus button, choose Reel, upload from your camera roll - and then you’ll want to add in the music you’ve chosen - which I recommend you already have saved so you can pull from your saved lists. For the Original Reels, I usually just pick whatever comes up. Then, I will write a caption (I usually just write these here, it doesn’t have to be long or complicated), add a few hashtags depending on the content of the post, upload the cover, and save it as a draft. I normally manually post these on the planned day, but from here you could also schedule these directly in the Instagram app as well.

—

That’s it, my friends! As I said, if you want to watch me film and edit short-form videos, I suggest checking out my YouTube video linked in the show notes. Or if you feel like you need further support on Instagram, don’t forget that we have multiple Instagram services through my social media agency, Creatorly Media - and we would be happy to help you!