Short-form video content is all the rage on social media these days. Reels on Instagram are increasingly gaining popularity among users.
It has become crucial for content creators, influencers, and businesses to integrate reels into their content marketing strategies in order to engage their audience.
Reels are a powerful medium to share your story with the world, showcase your product portfolio, and let people discover your potential. However, you must understand how the Instagram algorithm works to employ strategies that will actually help you grow.
If you are new to the game, don’t worry, we have got your back. This post will teach you all the tips and tricks that you need to drive engagement on your content to make it go viral.
Foolproof Hacks To Boost Likes On Your Reels
Are you ready to take your reels to the next level and boost Instagram likes? Read through the following strategies and implement them to witness game-changing results for your reels!
1. Don’t forget hashtags
Do not underestimate the power of hashtags in taking your reels to places on Instagram. They help your videos be more discoverable and visible across Instagram. When more of your target audience is able to discover your content, they are very likely to double-tap it too if they find it interesting.
Make sure to include hashtags under your reels. Not just any hashtags, but those relevant to your content. Hashtags also increase the chance of your reels appearing in users’ Discover pages that are curated based on their interests. Using appropriate hashtags and keywords with reels ensures that they reach the right people. The people who are truly interested in watching your videos will definitely appreciate the value you bring to them through your content.
2. Share Reels on your socials
The number of likes on your Instagram reels is directly proportional to how many people watch them. The higher the number of views, the higher your chance to gain Instagram reel likes. Sharing your reels on other social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp lets more people find out about your content and encourages them to engage with it.
You can also reshare reels on your stories to reach more people in case they didn’t make it to some of your audience’s feeds. A small snippet of a reel can create suspense within viewers and evoke them to watch the whole thing. You can also use more interactive elements in stories such as gifs and stickers to spice things up for your audience.
Another plus of doing this is that it will prompt other users to share it on their stories, increasing the likes and views count. Who knows it could spark a chain reaction and make you the next big viral sensation on Instagram!
3. Use popular audios
Instagram music library has a plethora of audios to use in reels. Some reel audios go viral and start trending on Instagram. You must not miss out on the opportunity to leverage these and make them a part of your reels. Add your own branded and creative twist to make it relevant. This helps enhance your brand retention in the minds of the audience.
It’s a great way to drive engagement on your reels in the form of likes, views, and comments as well. Since people are already familiar with the viral music or audio, they are eager to find out what twist you bring to the table. Show them the human side of your brand. Make it humorous, instill an element of suspense or amusement to enhance engagement, and prompt them to press the heart icon as soon as they come across your reels.
4. Design catchy thumbnails
When someone visits your profile and goes to the reels section, thumbnails are the first thing they get to see. If the thumbnail is not appealing to your audience, how are they going to open the reel and like it in the first place?
Free tools such as Canva let you design catchy thumbnails for your reels conveniently. Of course, it takes a while to get the hang of things but you can get better at this with practice. Watch a couple of tutorials and practice often to level up your game for thumbnails. Once you start putting attractive thumbnails on your videos, notice the difference it creates in the number of your likes and overall engagement rate.
5. Do consistent posting
Consistency is the key to achieving success in any given field of life whether it’s social media or any other. Most people do not realize the importance of posting content consistently until so long. A consistent posting schedule goes a long way in boosting your content’s visibility and engagement rates. If you are struggling with getting likes, views, shares, and comments on your reels, try creating a topical calendar and publishing content as scheduled. This will make a huge difference for your content.
Even the algorithm favors content from accounts that post reels regularly. Someone who posts reels after long, frequent gaps is forgotten by the algorithm as well as their audience. If you truly want to flourish in the digital space, keep posting consistently to witness the desired results.
6. Share behind the scenes (BTS)
One of the proven ways to engage your audience and encourage interaction from their end is by showing them what goes behind the camera. Whether it’s producing content, manufacturing products, or whatever it is that you do, there is always stuff that is not shown to the audience every time.
Getting a glimpse of behind-the-scenes through Instagram reels is a treat to watch for the audience. They get to see an unexplored side of the brand which can significantly impact how they choose to interact with the content. Using this technique will definitely get you more likes and views on your reels.
7. Post at the right time
What time you post reels matters a lot in terms of your engagement rate. There are times of high user influx and activity on Instagram in a day. If you do not post within that time bracket, you might not get the number of likes you are targeting.
If you have a business account on Instagram, you can see what times your followers are the most active on the platform. By observing your insights, you can easily access this information and use it to determine what posting times would work for you. When you post at a time when most of your followers are actively surfing through the platform, your likes count is very likely to soar high.
8. Replicate viral content
Recreating viral content with your own twist is a tried and tested way to shine in the spotlight and gain new followers. The thing about viral content is that it is already on the minds of many. So anyone who jumps on the bandwagon and brings their own touch of creativity to the trend has the opportunity to win the hearts of millions.
Visit your Discover page often and observe what’s trending. If there is something you can integrate your brand values in, go and make a reel for it immediately. Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags so it reaches a wider audience, boosting the number of likes and your visibility across Instagram.
9. Collaborate a lot
Collaborating with the right people can give your account the boost it needs to shine through the stream of content on Instagram. The question here arises, who are the right people, and how to determine them? Well, let us answer these for you.
The right influencers or content creators are the ones who work in a similar niche as yours. It is because their audience is genuinely interested in the content they create. If you collaborate with them, you will tap into an audience that is already accustomed to watching similar types of content as yours. This will help you get more likes on your reels, drive engagement, and gain followers who will value your content for a lifetime.
10. Write detailed captions
Writing detailed captions for your reels doesn’t mean you start writing paragraphs of paragraphs in the captions. It implies that your captions should clearly state what the reel is about and inform the viewer of what should they expect before watching it. Don’t forget to include any relevant keywords and hashtags in your captions.
If you feel that the length of your Instagram reel is less than the given limit you may add invisible text to increase the length. Your friends will never see that keyword and you may also solve your problem description length.
There is a huge difference in how a reel with no caption and the one with a detailed caption performs. People are more likely to watch and like a reel where they know what to expect rather than the one where they watch it without a context. So put a little effort and type a concise caption with each of your reels to get more likes and engagement on them.
Conclusion
Standing out in such an overwhelming space is hard where there is a constant incoming of content every minute. But, here is the good news. There has been no better time to start out on the journey to creating an impactful presence than now.
If you are struggling with likes or engagement on your reels, these strategies are definitely going to help you a lot. If you have made it this far in the article, we’d like to wish you the best of luck for your journey ahead!
