Instagram has recently announced a series of updates to its Reels feature that are intended to help Reels creators tap into the latest trends and shifts in order to maximize viewer engagement and build a community around their content. These updates are designed to be highly valuable for marketers looking to make the most of their IG content. One of the new updates is a discovery element that allows creators to find the latest trending audio and hashtags within Reels specifically. This new feature, called "Reels Trends," is available in your Professional Dashboard and allows you to see the top trending songs and hashtags on Reels. You can also see how many times the audio has been used, tap in to use it, or save the audio for yourself. Reels Trends is similar to TikTok’s Creative Center tools, which provide the same insights across basically every element of TikTok’s trending clips. However, TikTok’s version is more in-depth, with options to narrow down your results by region, along with more trend insights. Nonetheless, Reels Trends is a good addition for Reels research, which could help you tap into the latest shifts in the app with Reels-specific insights and notes to better inform your process. In addition to Reels Trends, Instagram is also merging its creative tools into the video composer screen, which will make it easier to create more standout Reels clips. The new Reels editing flow will incorporate video, stickers, text, and audio track editing, all on one screen. This makes it easier to align and time elements of your reel to the right moments in a more visual way. Instagram is also now providing insights into total and average watch time for Reels, giving you more data for your planning. Total watch time captures the total amount of time your reel was played, including any time spent replaying the reel. Average watch time captures the average amount of time spent playing your reel, calculated by dividing watch time with the number of total plays. This will help you better understand where people are being engaged or where you may need to create a stronger hook to have viewers stay longer. Instagram is also adding new notifications that alert you when someone follows your account based on your Reels content specifically. This feature is intended to help creators understand the impact of their Reels content on follower growth. Finally, Instagram is adding a new feature to its virtual Gifts element, which will show you which of your fans have sent you gifts so that you can better recognize your top supporters. This recognition can go a long way in enhancing community connection, and the capacity to acknowledge your top supporters, in any way, can be a big step in building community and fostering deeper connections. Instagram says that it’s also expanding access to Gifts, with creators in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK, set to be Gift-enabled within the coming weeks. While these updates are handy for IG creators, they're really just keeping up with TikTok, which already provides most of these options and more in its app. Nonetheless, these updates will be useful for optimizing your Reels strategy. If TikTok does eventually get banned, which has been a concern for some users amid all the fearmongering around TikTok’s ownership and the specter of the CCP stealing your personal info, Instagram will become even more important as a platform for short-form video content. However, Meta has constantly been playing catch-up with TikTok as it seeks to align with the latest consumption trend and fend off competition for user attention. In the end, these updates are a welcome addition for Reels creators who want to maximize engagement and build a community around their content. With Reels consumption being a key engagement driver for Meta over the past two years, these updates could be highly valuable for marketers looking to make the most of their IG content.
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