How to Leverage Instagram Reels to Make Real Connections -

I know, it’s hard to leverage Instagram Reels, Posts, Stories, and IGTV!

Honestly, I was not a fan of Reels when they first came out because I was a little intimidated. Yes, I was intimidated by the technology! But now I love creating reels! Are you wondering what changed my mind?

There are some amazing women in my online community who have helped me learn how to use Reels and Stories to connect with my audience and grow my business. One of them is Dana Bowling and her name is pronounced Donna.

The tips Dana shared during our chat on the podcast are going to help you become the person your audience needs to follow online!

Dana helps women gain confidence to take action and show up & stand out on Instagram. She’s also the host of the AMP It Up Podcast where she inspires women with tangible, actionable advice on how to show up, stand out, and start their businesses.

Why You Should Start Using Instagram Reels

Dana was an early adopter of reels. She had been on TikTok and wasn’t really gaining traction on TikTok. A lot of other people are using it and their business has exploded. But Dana wasn’t feeling that at all and TikTok just didn’t feel like her home even though she likes consuming the videos.

Instagram is her jam! So when she woke up and saw that she had Reels, she created a silly reel with her son. But she didn’t know a lot thing about it. So she didn’t share it to her feed but she got 100 views on it. Then Dana created another reel later that morning, a valuable Reel and shared it with hashtags hashtags. It got 3000 views that day!

When reels came out, she had less than 7000 followers. So to get 3000 eyes on a piece content was unheard of! It shows you don’t need a lot of followers to be successful. We only get such a small percentage of views on our stories, usually 10% or less. Most people are around that 5% of their total viewers see their stories. And then a similar if not less amount of people see your static posts or your you know carousels or whatever it is.

“Reels is the only the only way, the only shot you have of really growing and getting in front of other people that are not in your little Instagram bubble“ ~ Dana Bowling

How to Start Using Instagram Reels

Keep your Reels simple. Most are 15 seconds, 30 seconds max. So you have to get to the point, share the tips, share whatever and get off. Some of them are as simple as a person just staring in the mirror and mouthing and doing a voiceover like lip synching. Thing is there’s no rhyme or reason to why things go big.

Don’t feel like your Reels need to be really, really amazing. Once in a while you can throw out something incredible if you have that energy or time but in general, it’s just about doing it. Start by looking at your content that you already have on Instagram that is doing well. What content do people really engage with?

What do people really want to hear from you about? Think about one of those big questions that you’re getting consistently. For example, Here are three ways to (insert your topic).

Make sure you don’t just look at the camera for 30 seconds straight. People don’t like that; people get bored. Start recording and say “Three ways to (your topic).” And then the clip kind of stops and all of a sudden you’re in a different location. Bam! People are more interested in it!

The most difficult part of Reels is to figure out what you’re going to say. So write it out before and then you can record. Decide if you want to record just talking to the camera in different positions. Start by stating your topic, then maybe filming your computer screen as you’re showing things. Or do a screen record. You can delete. You can try it again.

The key to captions in your Reels is to make sure you don’t write too much. Now to make sure your caption doesn’t get cut off. When you’re writing the caption for the Reel, hold down the caption, and slowly drag it across the screen. If you drag it really slowly, a blue line pops up on the left side, on the right side, below and above. That’s your guide. You have to drag it really slowly. If you drag it fast, it won’t, like catch it. Sometimes you have to play around a little bit. Be sure to focus on engagement not views.

How to Cultivate Relationships on Instagram

There’s a lot of people that I talked to that are like, I want more engagement. I want more comments. I want more followers. Are you engaging? Are you commenting? And are you following others?

This is not a just come and get me type of situation. This is a given take. Instagram is very crowded! Instagram is very, very competitive. There are a ton of people next door to you that do what you do. Don’t let this deter deter you from growing your business on Instagram. There’s space for everyone! People decide to follow you and stay because of what they’re getting back from you.

This is not a one way street. If people are commenting on your posts, you best be commenting back.

What people see on Instagram is what starts to build the interest which is the like part. But the trust comes from the conversations. Be engaging by responding to comments and leaving comments for others. Just liking someone’s content or just following someone’s account is not enough. Look at their stories and send them a DM to start a conversation. Then keep the conversation going by responding.

How to Become the Person People Need to Follow

Everyone loves to watch stories especially in the evenings! They are looking for people who provide value with really good tips, make them laugh and are authentic. Create FOMO with your content and they won’t want to miss a thing. Stories is where you really get to put the stuff that you don’t want in your feed.

What should you share in stories? Start by being consistent. Then show up with some sort of give, like at the very beginning of when you’re kind of nervous. Even when you don’t know how to show up on stories, show up and just teach. All of us do something to help people in some category. Just share details related to what you do.

For instance, if you sew hats for a living say, “You guys, I wanted to show you why I love this material. This is a material that really works! And actually, every single person that uses them talks about how even when it rains outside and it’s really cold, it will warm your head. And do you know that the majority of the heat that leaves your body is through your heads?! You’re definitely going to want to keep that on especially if like right now. It’s cold.”

How to Beat Anxiety and Show Your Face on Camera

It is awkward and uncomfortable. But the only way to get better is to do it. And over and over. So you just have to pretend that you’re talking to someone that is really loving what you’re saying. We psych ourselves out by thinking we’ve got to be picture perfect and fully made up. But we don’t!

Use stories to make a connection with your audience, which then builds the know, like, and trust. If you don’t hit all three with your audience, you can’t get to the portion where they trust you enough to make the investment and purchase something from you. So all of that is what builds that relationship. And really, that’s what social media needs to be about, building that relationship. Showing your face in video so they can see your facial expressions, hear your voice and get to know more about you will help.

If hear all of my chat with Dana including the story shared that is really vulnerable, be sure to listen to episode 56 of the podcast. Click below and tune in on your favorite platform.

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