If you didn’t know, Instagram release a brand new editing app called “Edits”
It has all the basic features of CapCut but there’s one HUGE difference.
It has an incredibly in depth Insights tab.
This data it has given me profound insights into why certain reels are doing better than others.
I took a look at my last 14 posts and included 2 of my viral reels and broke down all these insights in our last community group call.
Today I want to distill the top 3 takeaways that I am making to be sure all my reels…
- Don’t get swiped past
- They lead to follower growth
- And I am actually creating deeper relationships with my community
A few notes before we get started:
- You don’t need to edit videos in the app to get insights on them. Simply by connecting your IG account, you will get data from any video you post on your feed.
- I put my data into a spreadsheet so I could see all my data in one place. I’ll share screenshots of the spreadsheet below, but if you want to follow along, you can access the spreadsheet here. I color coded each column so you can visually see the differences. The greener the number, the better. The redder the number, the worse.
- The Insights are live updating constantly, so what is shown on the spreadsheet may have changed.
- Here is what each metric means. If you want to find this, click the (i) button next to “Engagement” as shown in the photo below
1. Scroll Stopping Hooks
The first insight Edits gives you is “Skip Rate”
Skip Rate the percentage of people who swiped past your reel within 3 seconds.
If IG is tracking this metric, then it means it’s important… and we have all heard how important hooks are.
My hope is that what I share doesn’t stress you out, but actually makes creating content and coming up with hooks even easier.
Here is a screenshot of the least skipped of my last 14 videos.
I included what my hook was as well as the visual that you see within the first 3 seconds so I could break down the similarities.
It took some time to really understand what the pattern is here, but now that I see it, it’s obvious and makes so much sense.
The videos that get skipped the LEAST have these two similarities.
- I am telling you what action I took
- WHILE visually showing that action
For example, the top video, “Filming in Public” tells you how I get over the fear of filming in public and the first thing you see is me in an airport filming in public.
It’s proof right off the bat.
As consumers, our bullshit meter is at all time high. People are DONE taking advice from content creators who don’t walk the walk. We want proof!
❌ The worst way to stop the scroll is to sit behind your desk and say, “here’s what YOU should do to achieve XYZ!”
✅ The easiest way to stop the scroll is to say, “Here’s what I did to achieve XYZ” paired with a video of doing or achieving the thing.
Here are a few more examples of this:
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out, this is all storytelling.
Every great story is a character going from disempowered to empowered.
We want to see that you get what it’s like to be us right now, but actually have become the person we dream of becoming.
If you look at the hooks from my spreadsheet above, you can see how the reels at the bottom of the list aren’t doing a great job of that.
Good hook with proof: “Here’s how I get comfortable filming in public”
vs bad hook that is theoretical: “If I was Andy Dufresne from Shawshank…”
Actionable Takeaway
This isn’t all about having insane results like no more acne, a phat ass, or viral vides.
It’s more about TAKING the action to get those results that your client isn’t currently doing.
- Here’s what I eat in a day while training for the Boston Marathon (show a bunch of clips of you eating all that food)
- The barista just gave me wrong coffee order, watch me go ask for the right order and for a free coffee my next time in (show the video at the counter)
- Here’s what I post on my Instagram stories to increase my view count while launching my 1-on-1 coaching (show a before and after screen shot of your IG stories with the view count)
A hook is as simple as you doing what you want your audience to do and pairing that with a video of you in action.
This allows your audience to relate (the topic matters to them) and creates curiosity because they want to know how to achieve those results (so they’ll stick around past the 3 seconds).
2. Getting More Followers
Instagram CEO has told us they love content that gets shared.
He explained, sharing content with your friends is what people do most on the app and what keeps them on the platform the most. So Instagram is incentivized to push out the reels that get shared to more people.
Also, your shared content is what will grow your audience to fastest.
You either share a post with a friend in a DM or on your stories and that means that post is getting in front of new eyeballs.
Also, because a friend shared the post, there is built in trust. That built in trust makes it more likely you will follow that creator compared to if you their video just popped up on your discover feed.
So, we like shares.
Here is my spread sheet filtered by share rate.
Share Rate = The percentage of shares per number of views.
Right off the bat you can see my most shared content are also my viral reels (indicated with the green highlight).
What I takeaway from my most shared videos is they enhance my audiences awareness or makes them smarter.
After watching one of these videos I can imagine my audience thinking, “oh, that’s how to do that!” or “oh, that’s what that is!”
When I make you smarter, you want to share that with your friends because it will make your friends smarter. And who doesn’t want to be responsible for making their friends smarter?
Sharing great content makes you look good. Simple as that.
In “The Bear” video I share a story of how I think I’m spiritually bypassing getting my work done while watching The Bear. This makes the viewer go, “oh is that why I’m procrastinating?”
They now have a new level of awareness which makes them smarter, therefore, they will share the video.
It may also have articulated something they were struggling to articulate. Now they can put language to their thoughts which means they can sound smarter.
In the “MBC 1” video I teach you the 6 types of footage to capture b-roll without leaving the house. My audience doesn’t know how to make filming b-roll easy. But now they do.
They think, “Oh wow this actually isn’t that hard. I can do this without leaving the house!”
They will share this with their entrepreneur friends who they have commiserated with about how difficult content creation is. When you share that video with you friend, we have both helped them with their content.
In “Flop Content” I simply share a story of my frustration with a content that I considered a flop, but that content actually ended up getting me a client. It was a reminder (that I constantly need) that I can’t judge my content based on vanity metrics. All content is building trust with my audience no matter how viral or not viral it goes.
This is a reminder that my audience needs as well. We all have felt this frustration. In this video, I solved that emotional problem. You don’t feel so shitty anymore and you don’t want your friends to feel shitty either, so you send this video to them.
Actionable Takeaway
What I learned is that I nailed “the meat” of all these videos which is why the Average View Duration is also the highest.
Ironically enough, you can see from the screenshot above, the skip rate is the highest for these videos (lots of people skip before the first 3 seconds)
So what will I do?
- Continue to make sure the meat is super valuable These videos solved problems. So I want to keep doing that. I will keep focusing on where my audience is feeling resistance and either offer them a reframe or teach them how to take action.
- Improving my hooks on these posts Based on what we learned in part 1, let’s take the “Shawshank” video since it’s my most shared and see if we can get less people skipping it by fixing the hook. Instead of “If I was Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption and I wanted to become a content creator here are the stories I’d make content about to build a beloved brand” I would try, “I’m going to turn Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption into a viral content creator.” I may even be able to use AI to make a video of Andy being followed by paparazi. It’s obviously not real proof, but it’s fun and creative.
3. Deepening Relationships
Creating conversations is the fastest way to deepen a relationship with anyone.
People buy from people they trust.
Therefore, I’m looking at what reels get me the most comments.
Reels that have the most comments are the ones that evoke the most emotion.
Just look at what’s in the hooks of these reels
- It’s your job to trigger people
- I fled home for my 35th birthday
- When my content flops
- The fear of filming in public
These are all emotionally charged videos.
This is THE core principle of storytelling and human connection.
We feel alone in our feelings of fear, doubt, stress, anxiety, or sadness.
When you share that you get what it’s like to feel that, YOU become the person who named the thing that I was too ashamed to name.
You allow us to feel seen.
When we feel seen we feel safe.
And there’s nothing more valuable than that.
People become too emotionally charged to not share their gratitude for feeling seen.
Or… sometimes people feel the complete opposite because you challenge their sense of belonging. This will also get them emotionally charged enough to leave an opposing comment (haters).
When you make content that shares how you were disempowered, you allow your audience to feel seen, and then you share how you are now empowered, you position yourself as a leader because you have shown how you are no the other side of the pain.
You can see how powerful this is with those hook examples above.
- Acne (disempowered) to no acne (empowered)
- Flat ass (disempowered) to phat ass (empowered)
- Low views on reels (disempowered) to viral reels (empowered)
Actionable Takeaway
Don’t jump right into the solutions.
For example, in “Trigger People” I don’t go right from the hook, “it’s actually your job to trigger people with your content but probably not the reasons you think” and then tell them the reason.
Instead, after the hook I explain why I am afraid to trigger people.
It’s because I have a childhood wound of being the peace keeper in my household.
I never wanted to upset my mom, dad or older brother so I would sacrifice my ideas, opinions and wants which is obviously not a great recipe to stand out online.
By offering a bit of vulnerability, I create a deeper emotional connection with my audience and they feel very seen by this share.
THEN I share the reason for triggering people with your content.
It’s one extra step that will drastically increase the comments in your content and therefore, increasing trust.
Ignore the Likes and get 1% better
These insights are so important because we—or I’ll speak for myself—I can really get attached to a bunch of likes and make decisions solely based off the amount likes. I’m smarter than this… but I still do it, and it’s such a bad habit.
For example, I have made two posts where I take a character from a movie and share how I’d turn them into a content creator.
These are my LEAST LIKED videos on the list.
For real… 27 likes on the Shawshank video. Ouch. That is really not good for me.
However, these videos are at the top of the list for shares and comments.
I would normally dismiss creating more content like this because it’s not getting a lot of views or likes.
But my audience is loving them!!
The algorithm doesn’t want to share it with more people?
Fine.
Fuck the algorithm.
If I only judge my content on likes and views, I wouldn’t know the full story of how my content is landing with my audience.
I can also use the metrics to learn how to make these betters.
I’ve already revised the hook for the Shawshank video.
But that’s not all I’m looking at.
You can see the hooks were pretty close to the same, however the Shawshank one didn’t land as well as the Finding Nemo Marlin one.
Maybe it’s just the movie choice.
Maybe I should do more of these videos about Disney or Pixar characters because everyone loves and has seen those movies.
Even better, I should do these about whatever movie is trending most right now.
For my next video in this series, I’ll try out another Pixar character and incorporate that new hook idea to see if I can decrease the skip rate.
This is what content is.
Getting 1% better.
Not only does this improve my content, but I am becoming a better coach and industry leader.
Is there the BEST type of content?
Is there one content that can slam ALL the metrics?
Short answer is no.
Not all types of content are going to hit all the marks and you’re not always going to nail the perfect hook.
Content is an ecosystem that is builds your brand over time.
Some content will get more comments but a lot less shares.
Some will get lots of saves, but just one comment.
That’s okay, different posts offer different connection points with your audience.
However, there are two posts that I noticed had more green than all the others.
Wouldn’t you know it!
These two posts were scripted using the storytelling framework I teach inside my free 7-day course “7 Days to a Story that Sells”
If you haven’t signed up for this I’ll send you day 1 right now. CLICK HERE!
By the end of the 7 days you’ll have a story that improves your metrics across the board.
And just for fun, even though I developed this 7-day course after these two viral reels, they both follow the framework exactly and of course, both of these reels are green across the board.
Do not miss out on this 7-day storytelling course.
It’s absolutely free and you can get it by clicking below.
That’s all folks.
I hope this was super valuable for you.
Talk soon,
Matt
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