Create Reels to expand your organic reach
Which do you think is better for growing your business: posting a photo or a Reel? Why?
Let’s break it down.
Instagram competes in the market with short-form video apps like TikTok.
Over the past few months, they’ve invested time and energy into testing new features. Time on the Instagram app is important to Meta – especially if they’re taking market share from TikTok. More market share = more money companies want to spend on ads.
So where should your focus be? Where Meta is putting their attention: Reels.
“According to Meta-commissioned research conducted by GWI in 2023, 87% of GenZ users (ages 16-24) reported following a business after watching Reels, while 80% made purchases inspired by Reels content,” according to PPC Land.
Reels reach new potential customers, not just your current follower list.
Need proof? Navigate to your profile’s Feed, and click on “View Insights” underneath a well-performing Reel. Within the insights, it shows you a split of activity between Followers and Non-Followers.
It’s likely the “Reels tab” will account for at least 50% of your Non-Follower views.
Instagram has even tested revamping the app to spotlight video. “Instagram has experimented with opening to the Reels feed…But it hasn’t taken the plunge and made this the default main feed as yet,” according to Social Media Today.
Want to grow your followers and reach new potential customers? Utilize Reels.
Tip: Add a call-to-action to the end of your video, such as “follow us” or “send to a friend” to improve your engagement rate.
Tag relevant accounts on Reels
Reels take a lot of time and energy to film and edit; make the most of Instagram’s organic features to reach new people.
The first rule: tag businesses or community accounts.
For example, West Seattle is composed of multiple neighborhoods. Two accounts, @westseattlejunction and @admiralneighborhood, are perfect examples of community accounts to tag if you’re in one of those respective neighborhoods. Even a Chamber of Commerce account can help (but only if you’ve paid their membership fee!).
With a tag, you’re signaling it’s okay to repost your content to their relevant audience.
It’s also likely you’re not working 100% alone; tag your partners (sparingly).
- Real estate agents: Tag the home stager and the neighborhood account.
- Jewelry stores: Tag the artists and suppliers of your materials.
- Lawn care companies: Tag the tool manufacturer and the business you’re doing yardwork for.
A quick checklist:
- Tag these community accounts and partners. Use your caption to add accounts and the “Mention” feature on Instagram Reels.
- Use local community hashtags in your caption or first comment (e.g. #westseattle), and the “Add location” feature to show up in the Explore feed. Limit your hashtags to a relevant, active list, mostly used by people in search.
- In your caption, use the space as if someone is searching on Google. For example, as a jewelry store, utilize keywords like “West Seattle”, “engagement rings”, “lab-grown diamonds”, and “local artist”.
Follow and engage with community accounts
Just because you’re a business account doesn’t mean you can hold off on engaging.
One of the best ways to grow your own account is to spread the love.
Comment on local community pages’ Reels with genuine content – no AI responses.
Go through and “heart” all the comments you appreciate, too; a user will likely get a notification their comment has been liked.
Curate your feed to be within your niche. For example, if you’re in the wedding industry, like, comment, and save Reels and posts within your community: local jewelry stores, wedding venues, bridal companies, caterers, and more. By being active in their comment section, you can get eyes on your own content by people curious enough to click on your profile.
Another way to add followers and improve engagement is to partner with a business to run a promotion. Make sure to always follow Instagram’s Promotion Guidelines. For example, Pagliacci Pizza and Uwajimaya recently ran a give away for two $50 gift cards. By creating a series of posts together, they are sharing their audiences with each other.
Not reaching the people you need?
Ads are the way to go. Everybody is at the whim of the algorithm, which means your post can get buried in the noise.
Social is a “pay to play” model, especially on Meta. A little money (like $100) can go a long way.
Let’s say you want to do a brand awareness campaign. Your focus is on reaching new people to make them curious about your products or services. If the average CPM for your industry is around $7, you’ll reach 14,285 new people with $100. Not bad!
Increase your spend to $600 and you’ll reach 85,714 people.
With additional targeting and tools in the backend of Meta Ad Manager, you have a more powerful way to target too, including:
- Interests and shopping behavior
- Geography (all the way down to zipcode)
- Age and gender
- Custom audiences
- A/B testing creative
By combining organic growth tactics and paid ads for your best-performing Reels, you can start growing your business on social media.
