How To Improve Reel Quality On Instagram: I Spoke To Meta On The Phone

Should you share your reels to your story?

Yes, absolutely. That counts as an extra view, and engages a different part of your audience, that may not have seen your post.

Copying directly from Luca’s follow up email, this is what he said: Share Reel to Grid + Share Reel to Story (maybe with a sticker covering it “New Reel”) 

Do keywords in captions matter, like on TikTok?

No, your caption can be about absolutely anything and doesn’t have to describe what’s going on in your reel. That’s what hashtags are for.

Do hashtags still matter on Instagram?

YES! He said several times that hashtags are very important. He recommended using 3-8 (despite my protests that I’ve noticed that 30 always perform better for me 🤷‍♀️) and to use a mixture of a couple of big ones and the rest niche (30:70 ratio). 

He said you can keep the big ones the same for every post, but vary the niche ones from time to time.

This should go without saying, but make sure the hashtag is relevant to what you’re posting to help the right audience find you. Don’t use hashtags like #explorepage because they’re useless

What’s the best way to edit your Reel?

I didn’t ask this question but this was one of the many best-practice things he recommended anyway.

Instagram prefers you to edit your Reel within the app 😭 

It doesn’t have to be all the time (I complained that the app editor is a pain in the ass and he agreed with me), but from time to time, try to edit something within Instagram itself, even if it’s just adding text overlays there instead of CapCut.

Any advice for speaking to camera Reels?

Always have captions.

Does tagging another account in your caption or Reel affect your reach?

No.

After going viral, my views aren’t that high anymore…

That’s normal. Don’t worry and just stay consistent with your posts.

Photos vs Reels

This was one that I didn’t ask but was very happy to know about!

He said that Instagram are now prioritising profiles with variety, but not the kind you’re thinking of! 

Whereas before it was all about Reels for growth, now you should be aiming at a mixture of both Reels and photos if you want your page to grow!

After the call I went to look at a few huge and successful pages that I follow, and I’ve noticed previously that they were posting more photos but didn’t realise that the mix was almost 1:1 or with a slight preference to Reels, but still with lots of photos/carousels.

I told him that whenever I post photos, I never get the same reach as with Reels. He said that’s totally fine and to be expected. But having that as a strategy for at least 2 MONTHS will be beneficial in the LONG-TERM!

So anything you do on your page that’s different, stick with it consistently for at least 2 months to see a difference. And actually, that’s how I got my first viral Reel, I switched to posting every single day for 2 months. 

What is the most important thing about Reels?

CONSISTENCY! Luca mentioned this several times as the N.1 most important factor if you want to grow your channel. 

Whatever number you go for, try to stick to it. He said the more often you post the better (within reason, of course), and when I asked if 1 post a day is good, he said that’s perfect.

Copying from his follow up email, he said: As I mentioned consistency is very important for your distribution and for you to get discovered. By remaining consistent you’re also training your followers to expect another Reel from you, let’s say on Sunday. Kind-of like a Reels-Series, and through consistency, you also assure your followers keep on following your content. (+ you can also preschedule reels)

Are trending audios still a thing on Instagram?

NO! This one probably surprised me the most.

He said, you know that trending arrow that appears on audio? That’s going away!

The algorithm is changing so it’s not going matter what audio you use anymore (finally, no more hearing the same stuff on everyone’s posts!).

And you know what, the several times I went viral on both Instagram and TikTok (links are to my viral videos as examples), I did NOT use a trending sound. 

I also asked if it matters if we take an audio from a page within our niche (e.g. if you’re a lifestyle influencer and you use an audio that’s mostly used by car enthusiasts, will is affect your reach) and he said it doesn’t matter. 

Basically, go wild, use ANY audio you like!

Remixes

This one we didn’t talk about, but he included it in his follow up email: Remix an existing Reel. You can use another creator’s reel to add your own reel after it or have yours appear side by side.

Repurposing videos

This one should come as no surprise, but in case you’re still posting content with TikTok watermarks – don’t.

Since Threads came out, my views are super low for the first 24 hours, then it picks up a little. What’s going on?

Luca said, if you notice things that are suddenly out of the ordinary like the example above, that means that Instagram are running tests. He didn’t seem at all surprised by this and just said to flow with it, things are constantly changing. If their test works, they will roll it out to more users, if it doesn’t, they will revert it or do something different. 

Anything else on how to improve reel quality on Instagram?

The beginning of your video is the most important part so you want it to be engaging to hook your viewer in.

If someone watches your video for more than 5 seconds, only then does it count as a view (how did I not know this??), so try to keep them hooked.