I’m not going to drag this out and give you the answer to the title of this blog — Is Instagram Reels Like TikTok? — till the very end. Nope. Let’s just get to this!
Even though Reels looks and feels very much like TikTok, it is, ultimately, MUCH more important. Why?
Quite simply due to the fact that you’re on the Instagram platform. That’s it.
If you’ve listened to any Build Your Tribe episode where I, or my son, Brock, discuss a new feature released by Instagram, then you know the drill. Their algorithm definitely favors you using new additions to their platform!
And getting on Reels early has already proven very productive for reach and overall exposure — with a strong chance of showing up on the Explore page!
Don’t wait and be intimidated by Reels, people! Because Instagram is really favoriting this right now, you want to take advantage of this as quickly as possible.
If you’ve been on TikTok, then yeah… you’ll have a slight edge here. But Reels is actually quite intuitive and I know you’ll be able to crush it.
What You Need To Do
I bet that you’re more comfortable with Stories than Reels, right? So, create a 15-second video on your Stories, download it to your Camera Roll and then re-open your app. You’ll notice at the very bottom of your phone, it’ll say:
- Live
- Stories
- Reels
Select, Reels. Then, swipe up and upload the 15-second video that you already created!
At this time, my reach on a Reel, a 15-second video, is 10 times what I’ll get on a super well-crafted post that’s got basically blog content underneath — which can take me up to two hours to create.
Remember that whenever Instagram releases a new feature, they’re going to promote it by showing that content to your followers. Caveat: We never know how long these things are going to last.
Will this overtake IGTV? We can’t possibly know that at this moment. But again, what we DO know is that this is a killer opportunity for you to spend less time in creation mode (just 15 seconds!) and a lot more bang for your buck reaching more people.
All that said, should you create a thumbnail, hashtags and more for Reels? Well, to find out… make sure you listen to this episode of Build Your Tribe, stat!
And don’t forget to sub to BYT for weekly episodes guaranteed to game-change your socials!
