How to Create Original Reels Audios That Can Go Viral & Grow Your Instagram Followers
I am so excited to share with you this great new strategy to grow your Instagram followers that don’t cost a thing, and no one is talking about: Original Reels Audios!
But before we dive in, make sure you click below to grab our 5 FREE Reels templates, that look amazing and are easy to customize for your brand!
Get 5 FREE Canva Templates For Instagram Reels here.
Alright, let’s do this!
People either love or hate Instagram Reels. But even the haters need to agree with this:
when it comes to getting new followers and growing your audience on Instagram, Reels is the gift that keeps on giving.
Not only Reels have higher changes of discovery and reaching an audience that is often bigger than our own number of followers, but we can also strategically use Reels original audios to grow.
One of my Reel audios became a trend and has been used over 100,000 times. I repeated the formula I used to create a new one, and it just started to trend too.
Now I am gaining hundreds of instagram followers daily, without spending a dime or doing any extra work!
“In the past 30 days I have gained 7,238 followers — even though everyone is complaining of low engagement, which is common in the summer.”
So thank you Instagram Reels and trends!
We are all for using several different strategies to grow our Instagram audience for better results, so we are excited to share with you all our pro tips to create original Reels audios that have potential to become a trend.
Tip #1
Make a Reel that is very easy to re-create
People are much more likely to jump on a trend if they can just record a short clip or use an existing one. So stay away from complex transitions and multiple clip editing and think about how easy it will be for others to use your very own reels trending sound to create their version of it.
Bonus points if they don't need to be on camera!
Having to be on camera may be the number 1 challenge business owners and social media managers face when they need to create Reels, so any ideas of Reels that people don’t need to have their faces on camera to create are usually a hit!
Tip #2
Keep your trending audio and your Reel short in duration
Keep an eye on the length! A short Reel will perform better because people will be able to watch the whole thing. Sometimes they will even watch it multiple times, which doesn’t happen as often with longer Reels. People completing your Reels, meaning if they watch the whole thing, will tell the Algorithm that it’s a very valuable piece of content. That will lead to bigger chances that now only people will get to hear your whole audio, but you will also have a bigger change your Reel reached the Explore page for lots of people and gets recommended (my Reel was even recommended as one of the 3 original audios in the Reels sounds page, where you see the trending songs!)). and For all these reasons, keeping it short will help your audio will spread faster.
A short trend will also be easier to re-create, which we already listed as an important aspect of any audio that you want to go viral! And last but not least, the Reels will also perform better for the people who use it, so they will love you forever — and come back to use your other original audios and maybe even buy something from you or join your email list!
PS: my two Reels audios that trended are only 5 seconds long.
Tip #3
Make the audio universal, so more people can relate with your trending sound, share and use it
Your audio should apply to many situations, types of people and accounts, so more people can use it. Whether you decide to make your audio wildly universal or universal inside your own niche or target audience industry, this is a big reason why your audio may go viral and create a Reels or even TikTok trend.
Fun reactions are always a big win, or something that people can use to talk about themselves, like favorites, likes, dislikes, PSAs, etc. You can always invite people to share something about their business, family, pets, friends or significant others. All things people usually love talking about.
TIP #4
Do NOT add a background song to your original audio
If you add a song from the Instagram library, when people click on your audio, they will be able to use the song, not your voice track. Now if you want to add music to your voice to create a trending sound and choose to do it on an external video editing app, such as inShop, VN, Splice or CapCut, you could be using audio that is copyrighted and could be deleted from Instagram.
Safest way to do this is to only use your voice, or sound effects from these apps or music you created yourself.
TIP #5
Give your audio a recognizable name or title
Before posting your Reel, select a simple title for your audio, so people can easily find it in their saved list and be able to tell others about it easily.
You can do this before you post your Reel on the same screen where you will be adding your Captions. Just look below and you will see an option to rename your Audio. Otherwise it will just be called Original Audio, like everyone else’s!
TIP #6
Add a beautiful cover & include "Try My Audio"
This will make your Reel stand out both in your grid and the audio page. Many of the people who sees your trend, may come back to your profile even months later trying to find the original Reel, so you will want to have a cover that pops so they can easily scroll your Reels tab and find it.
If you need help with your Reels Covers, grab my personal favorite pack of Canva Template for Reels Covers, customize for your colors and photo and don’t forget to add “try my audio”!
TIP #7
Calls to action, baby! Tell people on Instagram to use your audio!
Don't forget your calls to action in the Reel text or captions, share it to Stories, add to your pinned posts.
Pro tip: use it again yourself as well! I have used again both my Reels audios and every time it helped more people hear about it and want to jump into the trend.
Enjoy these tips? Don’t forget to bookmark this page and come back to these tips next time you create your Original Audios for Reels — and if you see a friend or a fellow small business owner creating their own Reels audio, try to use it to support them too!
xx
Manu
Need to create more Reels but don’t want to be on camera? Check out our animated sets of Canva templates for Reels!
Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021). This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content template designed for engagement in their inbox.
Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneur and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.