When it comes to creating content, not surprisingly, there’s a lot that goes into it. From coming up with the initial concept to executing the strategy and filming it to editing the video and finding trending audio, there are no shortcuts to making a visually appealing Reel. Of course, we can’t forget that once the Reel is ready, we still need to write a clever caption with a CTA (call to action) to engage viewers. Oh, and maybe add a few hashtags (but not too many!). With all of these steps, it’s no wonder people find making videos and turning them into Reels overwhelming.
Even as someone who loves creating content and does it for a living, I would be lying if I said it sometimes feels like a lot. There are plenty of times when I don’t feel like being on camera, am not into scrolling through Instagram to see what’s trending, or can’t come up with a clever way to film a new Reel. As with any pursuit that requires imagination and creativity, there will be days that we can’t seem to get it right. And that’s okay. One way around this is to batch content, which I try to do often, and have a day where you can film a few things all at once. Then, when you are pressed for time or not feeling like filming new content, you have some videos that you can pull from. Or, better yet, have a few Reels ready to go that are saved in your drafts folder in your Instagram app (just don’t log out of Instagram, or you will lose your work).
I recently posted a few Reels on my feed that I loved and did very well. Some of them, were quick and easy to film, while others required more prep. But all of them fit into the content buckets that I typically talk about on the blog: equestrian, entrepreneurship, cancer advocacy, and lifestyle. Here are a few of my favorite recent Reels and what went into making them:
Equestrian: I stumbled upon a trending audio on Instagram that would resonate with anyone who is invested in a sport or hobby. The audio says, “Of all the hobbies we could have chosen, we chose the most expensive one.” Naturally, if you know anything about being an equestrian, you know it is a very expensive sport. One thing I always do when I’m at the barn is take extra content to use at a later date. Sometimes, it’s B-roll that I will use as connective content in a Reel to tie two clips together. Since I haven’t been to the barn lately, I’m glad I had a few clips from the last time I was there to make this video. It’s a short audio, so I was only able to fit in two frames, but they were the right ones and made the video work. Within the first hour of posting the video, it already had received more than 1.5K views.
Entrepreneurship: What I love about filming Reels for this bucket category, is that most times, I can prop my phone up and film a clip in front of my laptop. For this Reel, I used a looping soundtrack and put my own spin on it in the caption. Since this was a Reel to highlight my social media services, my on-screen caption read, “Not me checking notifications after spending hours editing a Reel to see that it’s gotten 6 likes, 2 spam comments, and 10 unfollows.” Then, I added a CTA that drove people to read the caption of the post for some social media tips and to potentially book a discovery call with me. The Reel was simple to film and received more than 3.2K views.
Cancer Advocacy: Over the past few weeks, there was a song trending by a woman who was in hospice with cancer. She was leaving the royalties from the song to her seven-year-old son, and advocates on social media wanted to see this song go viral. The artist has since passed away, and recently, I’ve heard her song and story shared on my local Long Island Z100 radio station in a show of support. It’s a great song and one that makes you want to move. So, that’s exactly what I did. I arrived at one of my workout classes early, and had the whole studio to myself. I decided to film myself dancing to the song, and encouraged my followers to use the song and help support this artist and her family. The Reel has more than 1.3K views and has multiple shares.
Lifestyle: One of the Reels I did for fun but knew would do very well was with this hilarious German song about a girl named Barbara who makes Rhubarb cake. The song lyrics translated into English are quite entertaining, but the song itself is what you would call an earworm. You literally can’t get it out of your head. I filmed it in my car and kept my caption very simple—the only thing I knew about the song at first was that it was about a German girl who made the best Rhubarb cake in all the land. The video was an instant hit and now has nearly 70K views, 2,791 likes, 77 comments, and 1,170 shares. It did so well that I challenged myself to learn the first 17 seconds of the song in German and remixed it with the original version that Bodo Wartke and Marti Fischer had posted (don’t ask me how long or how many takes I had to do to get it right). The video has 17K views in just a few short days since posting and has 650 likes, 44 comments, and 86 shares. Plus, it forced me to practice my German.
In short, the process of creating Reels should be fun. Even videos that don’t turn out as you expected can still do well, and you should be your most authentic self when producing your Reels. Those videos are always the best!
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