Creating Instagram Reels for Your Greenhouse Business
Did you know posting reels to Instagram can help you gain new followers? Instagram reels are shared with everyone interested in what you’re posting about instead of being limited to just your followers like normal Instagram posts are. We know keeping up with all of the social media trends can seem overwhelming, so to help you out – here is our strategy for posting Instagram reels.
Do Your Research
If you’re new to Instagram reels, the first step we recommend you take is to spend some time watching reels. Take 15 minutes a day to scroll through the reels section of Instagram. This will show you what others are posting, what audios you may want to use, and what trends you can participate in. When you participate in an Instagram trend, Instagram boosts your post in the algorithm.
Set Time Aside
Sharing reels will take some time, but it will be worth it if you remain consistent. Once you’ve done your research, you may have some ideas for what type of reels you think would work well for your business. Make a list of those reels and set aside time to record or design them. Having reels prepared ahead of time will help you remain consistent with them. You will want to post at least 2-3 reels a week.
Types of Instagram Reels
Single image reels: Single image reels (reels made of pictures) are some of the easiest reels to create because your content is already on your camera roll. Go to your Instagram account, click upload, select the reel option, and simply upload an image from your camera roll. Select an audio to pair with it, write a caption and hashtags, and you’re done! This is a great type of reel to use to highlight one of your products.
B-roll reels: The next easiest reel to create is a B-roll reel. Set your phone up on a table or a tripod and press record, then carry on about your work. Posting short clips of you working with text over it paired with an audio is an easy reel to make.
Lip sync reels: One of the biggest trends for reels is to lip sync to an audio. This one is more complicated due to the timing. Your recorded video and the audio need to sync up so it looks like you’re the one saying the words. If it doesn’t sync up, it will not get as many views. You can record these videos directly in Instagram with the audio playing, but it takes some time to get them just right.
Video reels: Video reels can be made of one video clip or multiple video clips pieced together. We like to create our video reels in Canva. You can get a free Canva account and access their templates, photos, and videos. Watch our video here on creating reels on Canva.
Picture slideshow reels: Another popular Instagram reel type is a slideshow of images. More specifically, flashes of images paired with an Instagram audio. If each of your pictures show for a second or less, your reel will likely get back-to-back views so every image can be seen. We speak more in-depth on this in the video linked above.
Choosing Your Audio
We find most of the audio we want to use by watching reels. When you come across a reel that has audio you like, you can click on the square in the bottom right-hand corner to see the audio used. If you click the bookmark button, Instagram saves the audio in your saved audios. Clicking on that square also shows you other reels the audio has been used in and if the audio is trending or not.
If you come across a reel suggesting a trending audio, click on the Instagram account to see if they post reels like this often. If they do, follow them so you can be alerted to trending reels early on.
Writing Your Caption
Reels automatically show the first 30-45 characters of your caption. Viewers are prompted to click on the caption to read further. If those first 30 characters are catchy enough or if the reel itself calls for viewers to read the caption, your viewers may click to view the entire caption. In order to read a caption on a reel, the reel continues playing in the background, generating more views on your reel.
Using hashtags is important here. The hashtags you use show Instagram what your content is about and, therefore, who to recommend it to. Use trending hashtags related to your content. Also, use simple hashtags like #houseplants if houseplants appear in your reel, or family-specific hashtags like #petunia.
Utilize Your Available Resources
We talk about social media marketing so often because it can boost your sales without costing a dime! Utilizing product images you’ve already taken, downloading pre-designed reels on Canva, and recording work you were going to be doing anyway are all time-saving ways to share reels.
Whatever you do on social media, consistency is key. Make sure you are active every workday and keep your posts related to your business and your products. We’ll continue to post social media trends you need to know, so keep an eye on our blog section.
