Social media consultant Anna Rump of The Social Media Lady lists the five most common mistakes people make when creating Instagram Reels for their business and how to avoid them

Love them or hate them, reels are here to stay, and with Instagram giving reels a high priority in terms of reach, these little videos are vital for getting your brand out there.

But do you HAVE to sing, lip sync or dance? No, you don’t. But there are some common mistakes you will want to avoid when making your reels.

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• Too much text

The whole point of a reel is that it is short and easy to take in, so you really don’t want to cram a lot of text in there.

The best way around this is put “read caption” with a downwards pointing finger or arrow and add your text to the main caption instead. Don’t forget the hashtags as well.

• Poor image quality

There is nothing more unappealing than fuzzy photos and with smartphones having such good cameras, there really is no excuse either!

Make sure you film in portrait mode (that’s vertical) and not landscape, otherwise the ratios will be all wrong and spoil your reel.

Clean the camera before you begin and put it in a tripod or stand to hold it steady.

If you are using still images, make sure they are big enough to be seen.

• No music or sound

If you are lip syncing to a voiceover or song, make sure you have the timing perfectly!

Most reels use audio already inside Instagram and you just select your preferred track.

You can even save audio tracks you come across and want to use later and build your library of sounds.

If you have a personal account, you will have access to all the latest tracks, whereas business accounts will have a smaller selection, but all approved for use.

This is important- licensing regulations can be a nightmare to navigate, and some countries ban certain songs.

As a result, if you do get a notification of copyright infringement, it is futile to appeal, simply click on the button to remove the reel.

• Not saving your work

Remember at school you were told to always save your work, just in case? Well, it’s the same with reels.

When you make a reel inside Instagram or via an app, ALWAYS save it to your phone.

There is nothing more frustrating than making a beautiful reel, only for the app to crash as you load it, and you have to start again.

If you are really organised you can then back up all your reels from your phone to cloud storage.

This is particularly helpful if you have a large team, and they are all making reels.

Central storage means your marketing team will always have something to work with.

• Not looking at your data

There is no point making reels if you don’t then analyse the data. What sort of reels are doing well for you?Dancing ones, photo ones, upbeat ones, technical ones?

If you look at the reach of each reel and the comments and likes, you will soon see what types work for you and your audience.