How NOT to promote your Instagram if you want it to grow 0 529

Probably the last thing we needed in 2020.

But Reels, a new feature launched by Instagram earlier in August, is officially here, allowing people to record and edit short multi-clip videos with audio and effects. This feature is already available in over 50 countries around the world. Just a few days after hitting the market, some of the short videos uploaded to Instagram Reels are already getting 5M+ views – not bad for something that is supposed to be ‘new’. We use the term new loosely, as this feature barely differs from Tik Tok, which has been around for years.

Like it or not, brands, influencers, and marketing professionals have to be quick in adapting to features brought to the market by social media platforms. New features are their way to keep its user-base online for longer and it may benefit your business. However, with marketing budgets and resources as tight as ever, will businesses be adding Instagram Reels to their content calendars and overall social media strategy?

Instagram’s eagerness to push Instagram Reels will help you

“I have been testing it out from the beginning. I posted some short educational content and quickly gained 200+ followers. I also had one coaching client signed that found me through Instagram Reels. The views are exponentially higher than my follower count, as Instagram pushes the new feature and its video content. I can totally recommend trying it and posting educational, inspirational, or informative content at least once a day.

Hannah Geuenich – Social Media Coach at www.thecreatorconcept.de

Adoption by brands might take some time

“I expect Reels will help engage newer audiences, while also helping businesses to serve their current followers with interesting new forms of content. This will ultimately be good for business. The short-form nature of Reels is going to be great for experimenting with storytelling for paid/sponsored programs. However, adoption by brands might take some time. Data is hyper important to determining ROI; however, Reels does have the advantage of being built on Instagram’s strong data-centric creator platform.”

Kyle Hjelmeseth – Founder at digital talent management agency www.gb-dm.com

I will strategically add it to my monthly content calendar

“Reels is perfect for business because Instagram audiences are already used to being sold to. This was not the same for TikTok. I plan to do short-form videos that tease and get people to click the link in my bio for a free training or lead magnet and follow from there.

I will be learning on a daily basis and adding it to my monthly calendar of posting every day for a month. This is the same approach I took on TikTok and this helped me to grow fast.”

Olumide Gbenro – Public Relations and Digital Nomad Summit Founder

It’s an opportunity to repurpose content

“For a brand or someone who isn’t utilizing TikTok or short-form content yet, this might be an opportunity to repurpose content from YouTube or Facebook Live. So, don’t think of Reels as a new branch, but rather a means of repurposing.

From what we are seeing so far, there may not be as much visibility for smaller creators through Reels. The biggest benefit for me will be recycling TikTok content and reviving it in another discoverable format. I truly believe the more content, the better. If there is a new means of blasting your product or ideas to your followers in a fresh and engaging way, without sacrificing the quality of your content, why not give it shot?”

Victoria Jameson – Social Media Strategist, radio host, and Lifestyle Influencer

Create new ways to use new tools

“Developed as a direct competitor to TikTok, we are looking at the platform’s new addition in a different light. Rather than shifting our content from one platform to the other in its entirety, we are working on developing two separate content strategies for our clients – each with different goals in mind. For TikTok, we are capitalizing on viral trends, topics, and partnering with influencers to leverage the rapidly growing audience in a new and creative way. With Instagram Reels, we feel it will be beneficial to align this content with our already-existing brand voice hosted on the platform. However, we will seek to delve deeper with the new visual, interactive offering. Hopefully, this will create a seamless experience throughout. Case in point, why cut the content in half? We see this as an opportunity to broaden the scope of our coverage online for each brand we represent.”

Anneliese Peper – Director of Social Media at PR News Agency www.heronagency.com

Having all your tools in one place is helpful

“From a business perspective, the Instagram Reels feature is a clever move from Facebook as it allows businesses to stay up to date with the latest trends in marketing. For me, one of the biggest benefits is that it’s all done within one platform. You are already starting off with a following that you have gained over time. You don’t have to worry about starting all over again on another platform. Reels are also easy to create and they sit on your profile in a similar way to an IGTV.

I’m discussing the possibility of adding Reels to our social media strategy in two particular ways. Firstly, they’re an ideal length for sharing small, snappy pieces of information you want people to remember. Secondly, as a business, people like to see behind the scenes. Quick but fun videos could allow our followers an insight into how we work.”

Jaye Bonser – Social media manager at online advertising platform www.adzooma.com

Marcio Delgado

Marcio Delgado is a Journalist, speaker and a Content Producer working with brands and publications in the UK and Latin America.

5 reasons why Emily in Paris could not be an influencer in real life

In a year that people would rather fast-forward their lives, Netflix’s easy to watch ‘Emily in Paris’ has achieved an impressive entry on the list of the streaming platform’s 10 most watched shows. The plot is far from elaborate: An American millennial goes to work in Paris even though she cannot speak a word of French,  falls in love with the city, its cuisine, and its men – oh, and on the way, she also becomes an overnight influencer without much effort.

Created by Darren Star, the same man behind HBO’s Sex and the city (1998 – 2004), “Emily in Paris” stars Grammy and Tony nominated actress Ashley Park, and The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones’ Lily Collins (who was also executive producer).  The series was shot in France last year, from August to November, in a pre-Covid era when people could still go out and maintain normal lives.

It is hard to realistic place Emily as a normal girl. She is perhaps the only twentysomething American with just 58 followers to be transferred abroad to work in a marketing agency. Even more bizarre, she is taking a post at what must be the only marketing agency in the world without any social media accounts, which makes it even harder to imagine the character thriving as a content creator.

Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of content creators and brands in Asia, Europe and America. So, believe me when I say that although the influencer marketing ROI is higher than most traditional sales approaches, it is way more complex than it looks. 

Here are the five main reasons why Emily in Paris could not be an influencer in real life.

Zero interaction

Emily is often impressed by the number of people finding her account, for no obvious reason, and following her, for no obvious reason, either. However, she doesn’t make any effort to check who those people are, nor to interact with them. Despite the fact that her Instagram goes from a few dozen followers at the series pilot, to thousands of people following her short posts once she starts sharing her Parisienne life in later episodes, Emily never replies to a comment or leaves even an emoji on others’ accounts.

Ask any real-life content creator and they will tell you how many interactions they have to create every day to keep people commenting and sharing their content. From a simple ‘thank you’ to a more detailed reply, influencers can’t afford to simply ghost post. Ghost posting is an expression created to describe people who disappear after uploading their content, instead of interacting with followers within the first few minutes of their content going live – these are the crucial minutes that will make or break a piece of content on social media.

No planning whatsoever

Emily is a free spirit in a new city and posts away with the same carefree attitude. here is no content planning. Emily just creates her next post in an improvised way. 

In real life, influencers spend hours planning their content. This includes crafting great captions, creating outstanding photos and videos, and meticulously planning what time they will post based on research and a deep understanding of their own Instagram insights. Knowing their followers well and what time they are most likely to be online is the key difference between content performing well or falling flat.

Ignoring Instagram’s tolls

In Emily’s world, it is good enough to post on the main grid. She lives in an unrealistically simple digital world.

In the real world, all tolls released by the Facebook-owned platform over the past decade massively help to drive engagement. We know that the protagonist is aware of Instagram Live, as we see Emily watching a live stream of her friend, Mindy, singing in a bar. However, she doesn’t explore Instagram Live while creating her own content, nor does she use stickers, location tags, filters, or any other available tolls.

No video content

Although Mademoiselle Emily works in marketing, she blatantly ignores the fact that, according to a survey by Cisco, the worldwide leader in IT and networking solutions, by 2022 online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017. 

The changes in the way people consume video content is a forecast widely spread across the marketing industry. So much so that, a few years back, while outreaching content creators to be part of a new campaign, I would often be asked in which format the brand expected them to post – as they had different fees. 

Video content takes longer to be created and approved; therefore, it commands a higher price. The difference is that in 2020 most influencers are posting in any possible format to maximize their reach. So, instead of negotiating a static post, savvy content creators are now more likely to offer brands a package that will include videos, stories, Instagram reels and, in some cases, even blog entries and cross promotions. With the latter, the influencer would also post across different social media channels.  

No follow up

Influencers spend a reasonable amount of time doing something that only a few people see: following up with brands. Once they land a collaboration, be it paid or in exchange for a free product to review online, the partnership doesn’t end once the post is up on social media. In fact, this is actually only half-way through the process. Within the first hours of a branded content going live, often people will ask specific questions that will require the content creator to liaise with the sponsor to answer them. The more related to the post, the better the engagement. Companies and their marketing agencies also expect influencers to follow up with them, after a while, to share content insights (how many people interacted, how many clicked the promotional link etc). It is worth spending some time doing it properly and in a professional way because that follow up will allow brands to decide if a content creator is a good fit to work on future campaigns.

All 10 episodes of Season 1 of “Emily in Paris” are now available on Netflix. 

Marcio Delgado

Marcio Delgado is a Journalist, speaker and a Content Producer working with brands and publications in the UK and Latin America.