I’ve been doing Instagram Reels for…three years now? And every year, I write up a “state of Reels right now” to tell you what’s happening there and if you should be doing them.
This year, I decided to give myself a challenge: 30 days of Reels to see what kind of patterns came up and if I can figure out this damn algorithm and what it wants.
Spoiler: I did not crack the algorithm.
I did do the 30 Reels, though, and I’ve got some insights to share with you!
Here's what I discovered doing 30 days of Reels
The Reels I did that were about writing or reading in general had the biggest views. (Examples: 1, 2, 3.) BUT this isn’t what I actually want. These attract writers of all genres; I want only the romance writers because they’re the ones who are ultimately going to buy from me. The lesson: Don’t go too broad. What do your ideal readers want to see?
You gotta be SUPER specific for your ideal audience. The ones that did well that were specifically targeted to romance writers hit on something that they want. E.g. Keeping readers buying through the series, what they need to be doing now, mistakes they’re making on Reels—these all had text in the video that got them to stop because it spoke to them, and then kept them reading through to the caption. The ones that were just mid and didn’t have enough of a hook ended up being the majority, getting around 400-600 views per Reel, instead of the 1000+ views.
I researched (*cough*scrolled Reels A LOT*cough*) and did EVERYTHING the social media “experts” tell you to do: use trending sounds, make your Reel dynamic with movement/transitions, have a hook in your video and in your caption, have a call to action in the caption. These were all hit-or-miss for me. To break it down:
Trending sounds don’t seem to make much of a difference. IG may reward you with a slight boost in the algorithm for using it, but I don’t think it’s boosting your discoverability. I’m not going into a sound to find new people to follow; I’m just going in to see what kinds of Reels people are making with that sound.
Movement is definitely important as a way to create anticipation and keep the viewer anticipating the next move. Movement combined with sound (a beat drop, usually) create great anticipation (example).
Hooks, as above, have to be specific and scroll-stopping—if it’s not speaking directly to them, it’s not going to work. For romance authors, it might be a matter of grabbing the viewer’s attention with the first line of a quote from the book and keeping them watching by revealing the next line, then the next, etc. (For those of you writing spicy, this is where you bring out the sexiest moments in your book.)
Call to actions are necessary to tell them what you want them to do: buy from you? follow you? leave a comment?
That said, even when doing all the things right, there were some that just did not pop off in the way I expected them to. And then there were ones that did really well even without all the things done right. Sometimes I genuinely think this whole thing is a crapshoot. So leave room for a margin of error for reasons no one knows.
Did doing Reels for 30 days help?
Kinda? It definitely boosted engagement and reach, though that did not translate to a ton of new followers or more comments than normal on individual Reels.
But the followers I got were good followers, i.e. romance writers and/or enthusiasts (I block anyone who doesn’t look like they’ll actually engage with my account—bye-bye, creepy dudes!), and that’s what I want. I don’t want to go viral and get a ton of followers that way because most of those followers likely aren’t romance people and will never engage again.
Was 30 days of Reels worth it?
Ehhhhh…I don’t know about that.
Coming up with 30 days of content on my own is a LOT of work. I had a lot of ideas and sounds and transitions banked in my Saved folders on IG and planned in advance (there was an epic spreadsheet), and filming part doesn’t actually take that long—I batched my content every Thursday, so I had the Reels with my face done for the week (I used stock photos/video from Canva for other days). But consistently creating hooks and captions that will hit right is HARD, and that’s where most of the time and work was every day. I was burnt out by the end of the month and so sick of my own damn face, and I definitely lost some momentum after that. (I’m still burnt out, honestly, so take this with a grain of salt, but I am continuing to post Reels two to three times a week instead of the one I was doing before the 30 days.)
However, these 30 days of Reels gave me a ton of data to pull from, and gave me a much better understanding of what I need to do to draw more of my ideal audience in. In that way, it was a good experiment.
Do I think YOU should do 30 days of Reels?
After doing it myself, I would say only if you have the bandwidth to do it. This is one of the reasons why I’ve been so resistant to TikTok—because it’s a platform that really seems to prioritize posting frequency and rewards users for posting multiple times a day. If you have the ability to post short-form video a couple time a day, amazing! If not, do what you can as consistently as possible.
(And by the way, don’t be afraid to reuse previous posts that did well, as a way to cut back on some of the work you have to do.)
Do I think you should be doing Reels in general?
Yes, if your primary platform (i.e. where the majority of your audience is) is Instagram. Reels reach is down in general, and carousel posts actually tend to be the highest-performing content on IG right now, but Reels are still a good way to reach new audiences, if that’s what your goal is. Also, I don’t think video content is going away any time soon, so you’ll need to know how to use this format to continue to grow and not fall behind.
Real talk
This marketing stuff, like Reels, is not the fun part of being an author, at least for most people. (It’s not the fun part for me, either—I would much rather be spending my time editing and coaching, but I feel that I need to do it in order to find people to edit and coach.) It is a necessary evil, though, and sadly most authors aren’t doing enough of it. You need to do more marketing than you think—not just Reels, but really be pushing your book often in every way you can, with social media posts, newsletters, podcasts, IG lives, blog tours, events, etc. (Yes, even if you are trad published. You’re still going to be the main marketing engine for your book, long after your publisher has moved on to marketing their next book.)
Take a look at Nikki Payne as a wonderful example of someone who does all the things for her book that came out in 2022 and for her latest that’s coming out in 2024. She’s a marketing machine and so good at applying trends to her books. I’m also watching Sarah Estep go hard promoting her upcoming book with clever memes and Reels and lives while also tying this marketing back to the previous book in the series. (Go give both of these brilliant authors a follow and check out their books!)
Please do not let the book you worked so hard on not find its audience because marketing feels scary and uncomfortable. Writing a book is scary and uncomfortable too, and you did that! This is just a new thing you’ll have to learn. It breaks my heart to see people make a couple of posts to promote their book around release day, and then nothing more. It’s gotta be way more than that.
Don’t worry about annoying people by posting about your book so often on social media—the algorithm is only showing it to a low, low percentage of your followers so they aren’t seeing your post all the time, and if they are, most won’t be bothered to unfollow you because of it. They follow you because they’re interested in your work and they care about you!
If you have any questions about Reels, I’m happy to answer them!
BONUS TIME!
If you’re ready to either get started on Reels or revive your Reels strategy, I have a brand-new resource for you: A Romance Author’s Guide to IG Reels!
Inside, I break down all the important parts of the Reel and how to use them to your best advantage, give you the dos and don’ts of Reels, tell you how often you should be posting, and present a bunch of prompts (including faceless ones!) to use when you’re trying to come up with ideas for your Reels.
