To Reel Or Not To Reel
This week, Adam Mosseir, the head of Instagram, released a reel “addressing a few things we’re working on to make Instagram a better experience.” His video is so disingenuous. He’s blaming the people mad about reels for the reason there are so many reels. You can’t force people to start making and engaging with reels and then shrug and say, ‘well, you shouldn’t have made and engaged with so many reels if you wanted to see less reels’. The bullshittery of this can be smelled from the smallest of users to the ones with 500K followers. Just ask anyone who lost their media job in the infamous ‘pivot to video’ era.
I am stubborn and can be rigid. I know this about myself. But I also am a great trendspotter and I am very online. When Instagram rolled out stories I hated them because I had been on Snapchat, which was a far superior ephemeral experience. And now with reels, a blatant rip-off of TikTok, which I’ve been on for 2-3 years. Find me a person on TikTok who likes reels. You can’t. Find me a person on TikTok who wants to see videos by people they know. Also no dice.
If you’re curious (and less judgmental than I am) about why Instagram, aka Meta, can’t become TikTok, read this GREAT explainer piece by Ryan Broderick. It’s a short read and it lays out how Meta can’t become TikTok because of the way Meta double-downed 3-4 years ago on (air quotes) “community.”
To reel or not to reel, that really is the question. Let’s break it down.
To Reel:
You find the creative challenge invigorating.
You either have video and/or editing experience or you want to learn and experiment.
The content you share makes sense in a video format, e.g. travel, cooking, putting outfits together, comedy sketches, etc.
You enjoy being on camera!
You have the time and mental bandwidth to create them.
Not To Reel:
You don’t want to.
It doesn’t make sense for the thing your account is about.
You don’t like seeing pictures of yourself or being on video.
You can barely do what you’re already doing and now you’re supposed to just become a professional videographer and editor overnight? For likes that you can’t prove turn into clients or sales?
In the rare event that you don’t know who I am, I am a professional social media consultant and I’ve been doing this full-time for over 8 years. I teach workshops for writers, creatives and small business owners on how to use Instagram in a way that helps your business, but doesn’t cost you your sanity. If you’ve taken my workshop, you’ve heard me say that you don’t have to make reels. Instagram isn’t the boss of your business. You are. And if you need someone to give you permission to not make reels, I’m here to give you that permission.
You will never beat an algorithm designed to be confusing and opaque. You can’t trust a tech company who’s telling you there’s only way to win and it just happens to be the way that uses a new feature they’re rolling out to beat a competitor.
We’re all losing engagement. It’s not just you. If you’re freaking out, let me stop you mid-spiral and ask you a few questions:
Are you posting consistently?
Are you using good photos?
Are you utilizing stories?
Are you liking and commenting on other people’s posts?
If you feel like you need to stop the bleeding, work on being to able to answer yes to all of those questions. The jump to reels as a quick fix is alluring, but it’s just that - a quick fix. An account with inconsistent posts and bad photos or bad graphics can’t be fixed by a reel with a trending sound.
More soon.
