Instagram Reels: Opportunities for Social Media Marketing

16.07.2020, 13:12 Uhr
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The latest feature of Instagram is very reminiscent of Tiktok. Can it hold up? And what opportunities does it offer companies and influencers?

The social media platform Instagram is known for constantly implementing new features to make the experience of the app more interesting and exciting for users. That the ideas for new tools do not always come directly from the platform itself, but that the makers also like to be inspired by other social media platforms, is nothing new. From the Instagram story, which was backed by Snapchat at the time and today is the center of influencer marketing on Instagram, to the latest feature that was only recently launched: Reels.

This feature is very reminiscent of the Tiktok platform, especially popular with the younger generation. But can Reels keep up with that at all and what opportunities does the new feature offer in the context of influencer marketing for companies and influencers?

Creative groups first and foremost benefit from creative changes or further developments on social media platforms: the influencers. She has her professional focus mostly on Instagram – so exactly where Reels has just been introduced.

Similar to Tiktok, Reels influencers have the ability to get creative and try a different kind of content. Especially in times when authenticity for influencers is as important as never before, this new opportunity helps to present oneself directly to one’s own followers. The trend here goes away from very high quality, often made videos, to very many loose clips that show the influencers from another side.

For the followers, Reels has the advantage that they do not have to leave Instagram as a platform to switch to another, namely Tiktok, for example. For influencers, this means that they do not have to build a whole new community on a new channel. In the context of Tiktok’s growth, it has finally emerged that many followers did not – or did not want to – make the leap to Tiktok together with their influencers.

Larger influencers can also use Reels’ very high reach to go viral through the newly introduced Top Reels Page and generate more followers. For small influencers, this site offers the opportunity to grow quickly and draw attention to building a community. It is also possible that the feature, similar to Tiktok, will also create on Instagram a whole new kind of influencers, who play a whole new niche through funny or particularly creative clips.

Opportunities for business

Businesses again have the opportunity to show themselves much fresher, more dynamic and modern through Reels. Due to the varied content, they can play content here that may not find a place on their account or in their story.

Another advantage is that they can collaborate with their existing network on Instagram – and thus also on Reels. On the company’s Instagram page, the people who are already interested in the products or services are gathered with the followers. With a switch to another platform, companies run the risk of losing many of them. In addition, many companies are still quite skeptical about Tiktok so far. This is mainly due to the very young target group. For those companies that appeal to a different target group, Reels is therefore a good opportunity to not have to leave well-known followers, but to be able to show themselves through the clips from another site at the same time.

Just like influencers, companies can also benefit from the Top Reels Page. When they go viral, they have the chance to draw more people’s attention to themselves or their products or services and to win them for their own brand.

The relevance of rules for social media marketing

If you look at Reels as a whole, it quickly becomes clear that Instagram’s new feature brings a lot of potential and above all a very high relevance. It is possible that the beginning of a similar effect as a few years ago with the introduction of Instagram Stories: After Instagram had more or less copied the format from Snapchat, Snapchat itself pushed strongly into the background. Similar could now threaten tiktok.

Although nothing has been announced so far, it probably won’t be too long before company account rules introduce the ability to insert links. This then opens up a whole new form of advertising that could create a lot of competition for Tiktok. The insertion of links is not possible there yet, which is why it is not yet used very strongly as an advertising platform.

As long as Tiktok is not inventing anything new or acting in front of Reels in terms of advertising opportunities, it is very possible that Reels will replace Tiktok before the Bytedance app could become really big in terms of influencer marketing.