Transcript
Introduction
What if I told you that you didn't need to hop on every trend to leverage the power of Reels and TikTok? Over the past few years, we've seen the rise of short-form video content with pointing, lipsyncing, and dancing trends.
And while this can be a great way to experience viral growth and engagement, original content is the next wave of short-form video content for Reels, for TikTok, and even for YouTube Shorts. I'm going to share three ways that you can create video content for your Reels and TikToks that don't require any trends.
Tip #1: Talk to the Camera
The first way is talking to camera Reels and TikToks, which is just like how you create an Instagram story.
One of the best ways to leverage this type of content is simply by having a conversation with your audience. The format you'd use for a talking story can be applied to short-form video content, whether it's teaching something, sharing your thoughts, or just allowing your community to get to know you a little bit better.
How to Talk to the Camera Using Reels and TikToks
Here's a few different formats you can test out for talking Reels and TikToks.
Use Dynamic Captions
The first is using dynamic snappy captions. One of my favorite apps to do this is actually the Captions app. It's really easy to use, and it makes your talking videos a lot more engaging and easier to repurpose.
Talk While Multitasking
Another way is talking while multitasking. So this could be doing your makeup, getting ready for the day, or even going for a walk. And Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri literally just did a Reel just like that. There's something about being involved in someone's day and watching movement while also listening that makes your content so much more engaging.
Talk Through A Process
This also could be talking while you're doing a process that you're teaching or sharing about. So maybe if you're talking about how to put together a capsule outfit, you would literally show you putting on the different clothing items. Or maybe you're sharing a recipe, you would literally talk through each item that you're using in the recipe. This gives a more personal feel to your content, and it makes your audience feel even more engaged with your brand.
With these types of talking Reels and TikToks, I highly recommend outlining what are the main points or topics that you want to talk about to ensure you're not rambling and losing retention for your short-form videos.
Tip #2: Create a Series or Regular Programming on Reels & TikTok
The second type of original content you can leverage is series or programming. Why use one of your best video ideas once when you can use it multiple times in a series? Just like we love to binge our favorite show on Netflix, our audience loves to do the exact same with our video content.
So by creating multiple parts to a series, they're coming back for more and they're staying even more engaged with your video content. And this is really great for viral growth and actually converting those new eyeballs into followers. There's also this extra element of comfort knowing that your favorite creator is putting out a series that you're familiar with on a regular basis.
Video Content Series Formats
Video content series can be done in a few different formats, so I want to share a few examples.
Healthy Girl Kitchen is known for her viral salads, and she quite literally shares life-changing salads not only with greens, but with pasta and even fruit salads, and she introduces it and shares the recipe in a similar way.
Styling with Kenzie has a few different types of series where she goes into a shop and shows what you should buy versus what you should avoid buying and also has styling makeovers where she goes through a similar structure with different people, different clients, so the result is always different, but the structure is very familiar.
Finding Ideas for a Video Series
When you're deciding on a series, I recommend looking at frequently asked questions or your video content that's gotten the most engagement, so you essentially can replicate that.
I love to start by storing those most frequently asked questions that I may be getting via DMs or in my comments and thinking of how I can follow up or create an original series from that.
So when I go into my Insights, there are a few things that I like to look for to figure out what is series worthy.
The first is comments that have said the content is helpful, maybe have follow-up questions, or even are thanking you for creating this piece of content.
Another thing I'm looking at is what type of content, specifically for Reels and TikTok, seems to perform best in terms of likes, views, shares and even growth.
I like to look for different content topics or even the format of the video to inspire new series ideas.
For example, I did my own Instagram Updates series where I found that whenever I shared about the latest news related to Instagram, it got a lot of really great engagement and questions and people were always coming back for more.
So I started to introduce the series the same way and do my own news brief and take on different features. I was able to replicate the topic that performed well, which was Instagram news, but also the format of talking to camera and having visual examples and combine that into a series that did really well with Reels.
My best tip for you when posting your series on a regular basis is make sure that you're adding it to TikTok Playlists. You're choosing very strategic branding elements for your cover photos or for that hook title slide of your video. You want to make it really easy for people to not only find one part of the series, but to binge the entire thing.
Scheduling a Video Series with Later
Bonus points is if you have a series that you're doing on a regular basis, like maybe weekly or monthly, is to post it on a specific day of the week so your audience knows exactly when to come back and engage.
These types of original content are the perfect types of videos to schedule inside Later. You could easily upload and manage all of your Reels along with your other types of content and Auto Publish, yes, Auto Publish your Reels. And you also can share them across different channels. So maybe you want to post a part of your series to Reels and then to TikTok. I've linked exactly how you can try out Later for scheduling your own video content in the description of this video.
Tip #3: Film Vlogs or Documentary-Style Videos
On to the last type of original video content, and that is vlogs or documentation videos.
You want to take your community behind the scenes of different parts of your day or month, or even parts of your brand and business. This could be a specific process, or it could even be a trip that you're traveling on. And the best part is creating these types of vlogs are really simple.
How to Create Vlog-Style Videos on Reels & TikTok
Start by documenting different clips from that day, the month, the experience or the process to put together into a video. You want to get a mixture of different types of clips some with movement, some with stillness, some with you in them, some with maybe a different subject. And you want to make sure you're going for longer clips, so maybe 5 to 10 seconds and not 2 seconds long. So you have a lot to work with when you're actually editing your content together.
This type of content really leans into the comforting types of videos that people love to watch, and it keeps them coming back to your content. And the best part about vlogs and documentation is they're actually the perfect type of series. I love in this example how there's a narrative element that almost feels like you're in that person's mind going through and recapping their day while you're watching it. It not only gives more context to what you're watching, but it really feels like a conversation.
And in this video, it follows that vlog style while sharing some of the creator's vulnerable thoughts and musings, which really is a great connection point for her community.
These three types of video content are the perfect ways to leverage non-trending content while still getting viral reach and growth with your Reels and TikToks. Essentially, this makes trending audio optional. They're more of the background of your video instead of the main character.
I hope this video inspired you to create your own original video content on Reels and TikToks. Feel free to binge my own video content over at Shine with Natasha on Instagram and TikTok, and videos just like this over on my YouTube channel. If you found this video helpful, comment the video idea you're most excited to create. And don't forget to Subscribe. See you in the next video.
