I don’t like Instagram Reels – here’s what I’m doing instead

Here's a little mantra I've been repeating to myself of late: stay on brand, not on trend.

Just because something is in fashion or trending in the online world, doesn’t mean it’s good for your brand.

For me, right now, that’s Instagram Reels.

My brand (and all my creations under this brand) aim to follow calm, considerate and ethical business practices. I prioritise quality over quantity. And I follow a philosophy to never pollute the internet with unnecessary content.

Reels that involve a lot of dancing, pointing, loud music and loads of words that pop up too fast to read hurt my brain and leave my nervous system feeling frazzled.

These kind of reels are not for me and, more importantly, they do not reflect the underlying values of my brand or speak to my ideal clients.

When we share content that is out of alignment with our brand values (or our personal values for that matter), instead of enhancing the brand, I feel the opposite happens – the brand gets watered down and it sends confusing messages to our audience about who we are and what we stand for.

But what to do now that Instagram is prioritising reels?

 Here's how I'm navigating the change: 

01 // The content (not the algorithm) informs the format

When I want to share something, I think first about what the best format to communicate that message would be. Sometimes a reel is perfect. But many times a written post, carousel, YouTube video or blog article is much more suited. I don't contort content for the purpose of fitting it into a reel format.

02 // Experimenting with calm reels

I decided to run some experiments to see what kind of traction I could get from making reels that contained valuable information that is also calming to watch. So far, I've shared a mini tutorial and an example of one of my favourite past projects. I put soft music over the top and aimed to talk slowly and simply. Hopefully this provides value and helps potential clients get a feel for my style, without creating overwhelm.

03 // Is this the best use of my time?

The kinds of intentional reels I'm creating take a good chunk of time to make (an hour or two) and while I enjoy creating them, I have to ask myself whether this really is the most valuable use of my time.

I'll keep experimenting with my calm-reels philosophy (it's early days yet) – but from the very small number of experiments so far, the results are showing that these calm reels do not get the kind of traction that the dancing, pointing ones do. With this in mind, I've turned more attention to YouTube, Pinterest and blogging. These are search engines, so I figure if I put more time here, in the long term they should help me become more discoverable away from the ever-changing algorithms of social media.

04 // Repurposing Reels on other platforms

Have you heard of YouTube Shorts? They are very similar to reels and it means I can repurpose any reels I create straight onto my YouTube channel. This makes my time spent on creating the reels feel more worthwhile and, like I said before, YouTube is a search engine, so hopefully will contribute to helping people find me long after my Instagram reels have got lost in my feed.

How are you feeling about reels? Do they align with your brand? Have they changed your feeling towards Instagram as a platform?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

(PS. If you love the pointy-dancy-loud type reels and you feel they suit your brand – go for it! You do you. In no way does this post mean to shame anyone who enjoys this kind of content. Simply, for me and my business, it doesn't feel aligned.)