Can Instagram Reels Increase Awareness for Your Amazon Business? | Social Media
Introducing Reels: "A new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos on Instagram." Instagram Reels launched on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 also known as TikTok's rival.
What Is Instagram Reels?
According to Instagram's official blog: "Reels invites you to create fun videos to share with your friends or anyone on Instagram. Record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects and new creative tools. You can share reels with your followers on your Feed, and, if you have a public account, make them available to the wider Instagram community through a new space in Explore. Reels in Explore offers anyone the chance to become a creator on Instagram and reach new audiences on a global stage."
How Does Reels Work?
Select Reels at the bottom of the Instagram camera. You’ll see a variety of creative editing tools on the left side of your screen to help create your reel, including:
Audio: Search for a song from the Instagram music library. You can also use your own original audio by simply recording a reel with it.When you share a reel with original audio, your audio will be attributed to you, and if you have a public account, people can create reels with your audio by selecting “Use Audio” from your reel.
AR Effects: Select one of the many effects in our effect gallery, created both by Instagram and creators all over the world, to record multiple clips with different effects.
Timer and Countdown: Set the timer to record any of your clips hands-free. Once you press record, you’ll see a 3-2-1 countdown, before recording begins for the amount of time you selected.
Align: Line up objects from your previous clip before recording your next to help create seamless transitions for moments like outfit changes or adding new friends into your reel.
Speed: Choose to speed up or slow down part of the video or audio you selected. This can help you stay on a beat or make slow motion videos.
Reels can be recorded in a series of clips (one at a time), all at once, or using video uploads from your gallery. Record the first clip by pressing and holding the capture button. You’ll see a progress indicator at the top of the screen as you record. Stop recording to end each clip (Instagram Blog).
How To Share Reels.
With Reels, you can share with your followers and can be discovered by the huge, diverse Instagram community on Explore.
If you have a Private Account: Reels follows your privacy settings on Instagram. You can share to Feed so only your followers can see your reel. People will not be able to use original audio from your reels, and people cannot share your reels with others who don’t follow you.
If you have a Public Account: You can share your reel to a dedicated space in Explore, where it has the chance to be seen and discovered by the wider Instagram community. You can also share your reel with your followers by posting it to your Feed. When you share reels featuring certain songs, hashtags, or effects, your reel may also appear on dedicated pages when someone clicks on that song, hashtag, or effect.
Can You Advertise On Reels?
According to Digiday, the new feature currently has no advertising options — which was a deliberate strategy, experts say, for Instagram to "cultivate new types of users and content" on its app before it attempts to monetize it.
Advertisers and influencers can’t pay to boost their videos or to have them displayed in the “featured” section, which is hand-picked by Instagram employees.
Similarly, there aren’t any branded content tags available for use at launch, unlike within the main Instagram feed, where influencers can signal they have been paid by an advertiser to promote a product.
While businesses are able to create Reels, much like on Instagram Stories, business accounts won’t have access to music in Reels due to licensing restrictions.
“We are currently focused on making Reels a great experience for people and creators, but are evaluating monetization opportunities for the future,” said an Instagram spokesperson.
On the subject of branded content tags, the spokesperson added, “We are planning to integrate these tools in the future," however a specific timeline wasn’t shared.
3 Ways Reels Can Benefit Your Amazon Business.
1. The Future Belongs to the Creator Community
An engaged community is priceless. TikTok's success had little to do with it's in-app features and became a hit with the help of creative users making relatable and interactive content. Instagram picked up on this and is consciously focusing their strategy for Reels around content creators.
So what does this mean for you and your business?
If content creators are at the top of the social food chain, then investing in content creation is key. Reaching out and securing relationships with content creators to produce product-related videos about your product could give you leverage in the social space and garner awareness from audiences your competitors may not be tapping into.
2. Repurposing and Resharing Content
Since the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine, producing and creating content has been a challenge for influencers and business owners. Many marketers have had to get creative when it comes to repurposing content for social and Reels gives creators a new way to use their existing content and make it fresh for new audiences.
According to Forbes, "marketers are already repurposing some of their Instagram content on owned channels such as e-commerce, Reels content could be incredibly powerful for things like ads."
Getting a jumpstart now with enabling content creators to make videos about your products could position you and your business as the first in line when Reels becomes available for monetization.
3. Get Discovered When Users Explore
Content from Reels is available via the Instagram Explore Page. The page is comprised of posts liked by people whose posts you've liked, posts from accounts similar to those that you follow, and posts with high engagement.
With the addition of Reels this gives you a new way to have your content discovered. Users are scoping out the new genre now and if you're quick to hop on the trend your business could benefit by getting new eyes on your product.
How will you be using the new creator tool?
