6 Tips for Making Successful Instagram Reels

• Follow the trends
• Add Hashtags
• Include your reels in your feed
• Post Reels Regularly
• Find the best times to post
• Add a call to action

Instagram Reels are a relatively new offering from Instagram, launching mid-2020. Like TikTok videos, Instagram Reels is geared towards short, snappy videos to increase engagement. Users can add fun stickers, music, sounds, and text to their videos to bring them to life, allowing for more flexibility than traditional Instagram posting.

Starting in July 2022, videos under 15 minutes in length will automatically be shared as Reels. That means it’s crucial for Instagram users to understand how Instagram Reels work, how to create them, and how to optimize them to continue growing their audiences and attracting followers

Follow the trends

Like other social media platforms, Instagram users create and follow trends. Using a trend as inspiration for your content could help it go viral because the trend is already popular.

Find Trending Reels by scrolling through your Instagram feed or seeing what appears on your Explore page. To access the Reels Explore page, simply tap the video icon at the bottom of the screen. See what types of Reels are popular right now to help guide your content. Look for anything that stands out in your feed, like a song or a challenge, that Reels are using a lot right now.

Add Hashtags

Instagram Reels can benefit from hashtags just like photo posts. When people on Instagram search for a specific hashtag, your Reel will appear in the results. In addition, Instagram uses these hashtags to learn more about your Reel and what “categories” it belongs to in order to better offer it to people who would be interested in it.

Look for the hashtags that are already trending in your feed and use the relevant ones in your caption. Also think about what hashtags might attract a relevant audience for your Reel, like #dogtraining for a Reel featuring a dog trick.

Include your reels in your feed

When you create a Reel, Instagram allows you to include it only in the Reels tab of your profile or add it to your feed as well. For greater visibility, activate the option to also include it in your feed. This way, anyone who visits your profile can see it without having to navigate to the Reels tab.

Also, by having the reels in both places, you will have a better chance of reaching more viewers.

Post Reels Regularly

Posting consistently is just as important to the success of Instagram Reels as it is to Instagram feed posts. There are no hard and fast rules for posting Instagram Reels. Instead, focus on consistency and finding a time that works for your audience.

Many experts believe that posting Reels about 4-7 times a week is a good strategy. But if you can only manage to produce three quality Reels, focus on sending them only three days a week. Get in the habit of including them in your content calendar so making and posting Reels becomes routine.

Find the best times to post

Your Reels can stand out when you know when your audience is most likely to watch them. Hootsuite’s own research found that 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., Monday through Thursday, are the best hours for engagement on Instagram Reels. However, this can vary depending on the type of content you post and when your audience is using Instagram the most.

Use Instagram analytics to find out when your audience is most active on the platform. Continue with our Instagram Analytics Guide to learn how to use it.

Add a call to action

Unlike Instagram Stories, which have recently been given the ability to include links via a link sticker, Instagram Reels bonus currently cannot have a clickable link. You can include a link in your Caption but, again, it won’t be clickable.

Still, having a Call-to-Action that links someone to an offer, product page, or whatever else you want to drive traffic to is a great way to get the most viewers from your Reels. To do this, change the link in your bio to your offer and encourage people to click on your link from your Reel. Add text that says Link in Bio to your Reel, include it in the caption, or tell people in your video to click the link.

If you have multiple links to share, use a link service like Linktree OR Camping or send viewers to a page on your website that lists your links.