Instagram Reel Ideas That Aren’t Pointing to Text
Reels are dominating social media right now, but brainstorming and creating fresh new reels every day can be exhausting/overwhelming. We’ve all seen (and made!) our fair share of “pointing-to-text-while-dancing” reels, but if you are one of those people who personally hates the point-and-dance or if you’re just looking for something new, here are a few other ideas to pump out those reels and capture some new content:
Tips
Tips are super shareable and save-able and offer easy value across all categories. Whatever you’re good at, whether it’s makeup, food, mental health, fashion, DIY, home decor, organization or just random life hacks, find a way to share your ideas as “3 steps to…” or “life hack for…” or “5 tips for…” If you don’t want to come across as an expert or feel unqualified, try sharing advice or tips you heard from others: “Saw this tip on ___ and it changed my life” or “The best advice I ever got for ____ was ____.”
Transformations
Everyone loves a good “before and after” because it tells a great story, from simple outfit changes to entire home renovations to deep personal transformations. Think about how you can frame something you’re doing this week as a “before and after,” even if you have no grand story to tell.
Maybe you can change your title or text from “my struggle with anxiety” to “my anxiety a year ago vs today” or “before and after my first therapy session.” Maybe a time-lapse of you cleaning your house could be “before and after my stress cleaning session today.”
Your most impactful transformations might also be days/weeks/months in the making, so try just taking us along on your journey as you try to reach a goal, whether you share snippets along the way or wait to post until the end. These types of reels can be amazing, even if it takes months to see the finished content.
Short Montage/Day in Your Life
Short montages of your day-to-day life or clips of your routine are a great way to connect with your audience. If you’re taking a day trip to the beach, snap a few quick videos and compile them later into a reel. Share time-lapses or montages of things you do all the time, like your makeup routine or what you eat in a day. These types of reels might be less likely to go viral, but they’re great for connecting with the audience you already have. You can also try doing these types with a trending sound to help boost it to other people.
BTS of Your Work
People love to feel like they’re connecting with the real you and watching behind the scenes of your life. If you’re at a photoshoot, compile some moments from the day into a reel so people can see how you achieved the content you shot. If you’re a life coach, show us what your meetings with clients look like. If you’re a musician, bring us into a writing session, or if you’re an actor, bring us on set or to your fitting appointments. It’s fascinating to see what goes into people’s jobs and lives when you’re only used to seeing the finished product. BTS can also feel sort of like an exclusive inside scoop for your audience, even if it’s just normal life to you, so take advantage of that.
Funny/Relatable Trends
Trends are a great way to get discovered because people are already searching to find more of them, or clicking on the sound and browsing similar videos. It usually helps to hop on trends quickly if you can find a way to personalize them to your style. Relatable and funny content in general is probably the most shared content right now anyways, so the more you can brainstorm how to fit that in your niche, the better!
A great place to start if you’re unsure is to think through who your ideal audience is. What do they love, what do they find frustrating, what do they experience all the time, what was their childhood like, what weird trends did they live through, what ordinary every day things happen to them that might be a pet peeve or something they find super satisfying?Most of the time your ideal audience is similar to you, so try brainstorming those small relatable moments you experience that your audience might connect with and then see if you can add it to a trending sound or start a trend of your own.
use Your YouTube and TikTok Content
If you’re already making new content on another platform like YouTube or TikTok, cut that content into reels too. You can also repurpose old content this way as a buffer for days when you don’t have time/creative energy to make new content. To save a TikTok without the water mark, save it to your phone as a live photo, use your phone’s edit tool to convert the photo to a video, and then find the same sound on Instagram. Creating content every day is a lot of work, so repurposing other content is a great way to give you a break from brainstorming something completely new.